Pawns of Prophecy
by turtlerad17
Summary: They had sacrificed their lives to save their planet from destruction. But it seems that fate is not done with these soulmated lovers, for against their will they are being tangled up in a sinister plot on an eerily familiar new world. AS Complete.
1. Prologue

Pawns of Prophecy

By Turtlerad17

Disclaimer: I don't own FF7 nor will I make any profit from this story.

Note: Pawns of Prophecy is the sequel, I repeat the SEQUEL to Children of Prophecy. If you have not already read CoP, read it NOW. You won't understand many things that will happen in this story if you don't.

* * *

Prolog

The pain had been terrible, it went beyond physical and had sent their very souls into spasms of agony. They had sacrificed their lives for an uncaring race and a planet that went to such lengths to bring them together. But in the end it had been worth it. All the pain, all the loneliness, the suffering, the intolerance, and the hatred that they endured just because they were different from all the other humans was nothing in comparison to the joy and love they found in each others arms. They had no reason, no motivation, for their gamble with their lives and the fate of a planet at the Northern Crater. The desperate and drastic risk that they had taken when summoning Holy in all rights should have failed. But it didn't, that's all that mattered.

What they never expected was to actually survive using the White Materia. By all accounts they should have perished in that blaze of energy, they had performed the summoning in full knowledge that it would take all their life-force to complete it. And perish they did, or at least their physical bodies did anyway. Somehow, in feeding their very souls into the White Materia to fuel the spell for summoning Holy, they were transformed. No longer did they have corporal bodies, but their souls still existed, enclosed in forms made entirely out of energy.

How it happened neither could figure out. Perhaps, it was a reward for willing to use their lives to save their planet and its people that hated them so. Or maybe it was the massive amounts of purifying energy that swirled around them as they delivered Holy to combat Meteor. They might never know, but regardless of the cause, they were together once more, this time for eternity, and that was all that mattered. And so in a blaze of glory, their old lives on their home world ended and their new existence traveling through the stars and exploring the wonders of the universe began.

Their travels were beyond anything they had ever imagined. They saw stars, planets and entire solar systems be created and be destroyed. They traveled into the center of the galaxy and saw the larger-than-life black hole that slowly drew everything around it into its core. They saw life begin, flourish, and wither on countless planets and saw numerous civilizations achieve technological marvels that stretched the very fabric of reality and allowed entire species to travel through space in comfort and ease. They thought that their wondrous and mystifying existence would continue that way for eternity.

They were wrong.

For it seemed that fate was not yet done with the two children of prophecy and destiny is loath to give up its favorite pawns. And as their dreamy, fantastic reality came crashing to a halt, a new plot, a new prophecy was unfolding. As the two transformed beings stared down upon an eerily and hauntingly familiar planet in disbelief, a sense of foreboding and trepidation over came them. They feared what lay on that planet's surface, intuitively knowing that nothing good was in store for them down there. And they were right to fear, for the events that unfolded soon after would easily shatter weaker souls than theirs.

They struggled against what they knew was unavoidable, to no avail. For the planet itself was drawing them in and they were helpless in the force of a planet's will. It and its children needed them, their very presence there would fulfill an ages old prophecy that had faded into legend. They had no choice in the matter, for they were the children of prophecy, the pawns of fate, and will serve their part in the destiny of this planet, like it or not.

* * *

Short chappie, I know. But it is the prolog after all. It is meant to be nothing more than an introduction and a teaser. If any of you haven't figured it out yet, Pawns of Prophecy is the sequel to Children of Prophecy, though I can easily imagine many of you asking "How can there be a sequel when Aeris and Sephiroth died in the last story?"

If you are one of those people, take a look at the last few paragraphs of Ch.10 of CoP, that might give you a clue (although I think that the prolog does that as well).

Unfortunately, inspiration for this story chose to strike me at a very inopportune time: Finals Week. So don't expect an update till this weekend at the earliest.

Reviews are the food of fan fiction authors and without them, stories starve.


	2. Landfall

Pawns of Prophecy

By: Turtlerad17

Disclaimer: I don't FF7 not will I profit from this fic

Note: Pawns of Prophecy is the sequel, I repeat the SEQUEL to Children of Prophecy. If you have not already read CoP, read it NOW. You won't understand many things that will happen in this story if you don't.

* * *

Chapter 1: Landfall

It was a normal day in Midgar, or as normal as one could be during one of AVALANCHE's get-togethers. The people who wandered past the newly rebuilt 7th Heaven ignored the sounds of small explosions, high pitched shrieks, violent cursing, the occasional gunshot, and other such noises that had come to be associated with such gatherings in the bar. But if the townspeople had known what the celebration that day was about, they would have hid in their homes in mortal fear. It was Yuffie's eighteenth birthday, and that meant that she was of legal age to consume alcohol.

All the members of AVALANCHE watched in trepidation as the young ninja downed her sixth shot of tequila. They had every right to fear Yuffee getting totally smashed. Yuffee plus all the alcohol she could get her hands on equaled a ticking time bomb, just waiting to explode. When they had first visited Costa del Sol, Yuffie had snuck off and had gotten fairly tipsy before Tifa had found her in the bar and had dragged her off. Unfortunately, much to the dismay of everyone present, alcohol made Yuffie even more obnoxious (if that was even possible). When she wasn't singing Wutain drinking songs off-key at the top of her lungs, she was talking a mile a minute with every other word uttered being an obscenity. Now faced with the magnified terror of a totally drunk ninja, several members of the group had to force themselves to stay in their seats and not flee from the room.

Finally, after Yuffie had slammed down her shot glass after her latest round, she lifted her head and peered oddly around the room, an odd shine in reflecting in her eyes. When she did nothing, all the room's occupants let out a sigh of relief. But their relief was short lived, for in the next moment, she let out an incredibly high-pitched, girly shriek. All the members of AVALANCHE covered their ears and those with more sensitive hearing (Nanaki and Vincent) were practically rolling on the floor in agony.

Before anyone had managed to recover their senses, Yuffie jumped up and started to literally bounce off the walls, jabbering incomprehensible sentences and phrases in the same high pitched tone she had used just seconds before. Everyone in the room just stared at the ultra-energetic girl in complete and utter horror. Apparently when Yuffie got really drunk she became really, really, _really_ hyper.

"I'm just glad that she hasn't started singing," Nanaki moaned.

She broke out into a bawdy sailor song she had learned from the off-duty sailors in Junion. Majorly off-key of course.

"Too late," Cait Sith chuckled.

Yuffie whirled around to face the robotic cat.

"Well #$ you, you stupid, $&&-eating, $&&#&!, dammed piece of (&#$#, that not even a mother-#$ ugly bullfrog would love. You &$&((, $!, $$ robotic chicken that $&$ with #$& mules!" she yelled at him.

Cid and Barret just whistled.

Then as if that never happened, she bounced her way across the room, humming loudly. She proceeded to drag the hapless ex-Turk from his hiding place in the dark corner of the room and attempted to dance with him to an atrocious pop song that she was now singing.

By now Cloud and Tifa were laughing, Nanaki was quietly chuckling and Barret and Cid were loudly guffawing while pounding the table that they were sitting at. Vincent had gone into shock and a look of panic was plastered across his face. Barret and Cid took one look at the hapless gunman and started laughing even harder, till they had to stop to catch their breath and clutch their aching sides.

Abruptly, Yuffie released her captive and started running in circles, yelling out odd things like "the sky is pink!", "beware the rabid bunnies!", "rocks are your friends!", and "here comes the happy train!". Vincent, no longer in the death grip of the sloshed Wutain princess, hastily scooted away and ran behind bar counter for shelter. Everyone just grimaced and backed away slowly. Who knew what this explosion in slow motion would do next.

Fortunately for their sanity, they never go the chance to find out. Just a few seconds later, the whole area was hit with a completely unexpected earthquake followed by a high-pitched, shrill sound that was somewhere in between a whine and a buzz. The noise continued to build in intensity, to the point that everyone thought that they would be permanently deaf afterwards, until, with a warble, the noise and the shaking abruptly stopped.

"Everybody all right?!" Cloud yelled out as he emerged from under a table. An assorted mix of affirmative groans, moans, shaky "yeses" and one growl answered him. Nanaki, always the observant one, immediately noticed the one person who had yet to respond.

"What about Yuffie?" he asked, slightly worried.

"I believe that she is perfectly fine," a weary reply came from behind the bar counter.

Cait Sith, being the closest one bounced over and looked down upon an unusual sight. Lying totally unharmed behind the counter was Vincent, with a loudly snoring Yuffie sprawled on top of him. To say the least, Vincent was highly uncomfortable with the position. It seemed that he was having a hard time getting the ninja off of him due to how heavy her limp, deadweight body had seemed to become. To make matters worse for the gunman, Yuffie was drooling on his shirt. Cait Sith, one never to pass up a golden opportunity, took the occasion to seal this moment in infamy.

"Cheese!" he cheekily yelled at the befuddled ex-Turk, followed by a bright flash of light from the robotic cat's left paw.

Vincent blinked in confusion in reaction to the flash from Cait Sith's internal camera. Not fully registering what had just happened, he finally managed to shove the soundly sleeping Wutain princess off him.

"Well, I guess that put a stop to this party real fast (not that it was entirely unwelcome)," Barret mentioned.

"I guess that you're right," Cloud sighed, "let's go do some damage control."

A few minutes of checking over the bar later, Cloud announced that relatively little damage had happened during the odd earthquake.

"It's kinda funny," Tifa puzzled, "Midgar, unlike Mideel, has never been known for earthquakes."

"Just the occasional exploding reactor," Cait Sith impishly added.

Barret, Tifa, and Cloud shot him rather nasty glares.

"Sorry, sorry," he appeased, "jeeze, it seems that some people can't take a joke."

"So now what?" Nanaki asked.

"We go outside and see what we can do to help," Tifa promptly answered.

So all the slightly battered and shaken members of AVALANCHE, minus Yuffie who was still out cold and Cait Sith ("Stay behind and keep watch over sleeping monstrosity over there" Barret snapped, "But why?" Cait Sith moaned, "Because you are a nuisance" Barret shot back), exited the still sound building and spread out in pairs across the area. It seemed that the 7th Heaven had been extremely lucky. At least thirteen buildings (some of them houses) had completely collapsed and several dozen more had partially collapsed with a few building coming out with minor damage.

For the rest of the night and well into the next day, the members of AVALANCHE (with Yuffie and Cait Sith joining them after she woke up with a massive hangover) along with several volunteer emergency rescue units and many courageous civilians shifted through the rubble of the ruined buildings looking for survivors. For such a massive earthquake, there were only a handful of causalities when there could have been much more, although fifteen people had to receive emergency medical care for serious, potentially life-threatening wounds.

* * *

The sun was rapidly sinking down in the sky when AVALANCHE, bone weary and mentally exhausted, finally stumbled back to the 7th Heaven which was now serving as an impromptu shelter rather as a bar (although drinks were being liberally distributed to help settle shaken nerves and to dull the shock of many). Tifa, after distributing an ice cold beer to everyone ("Not me!" Yuffie vehemently exclaimed, "I feel bad enough as it is without contributing to this monster headache"), turned on a radio as the members of AVALANCHE gathered in the back room behind the bar counter.

_City-wide causalities have added up to over fifty dead, with the most being in what used to be in Sector Three, now renamed Skyview_, the radio buzzed, full of static_, damages across the entire city are estimated to be over 400 million gil and rising. Several small fires have broken out in former Sector Eight, now Fastline, that are being quickly being put out by the Sector Eight Fire Department and volunteer fire brigades. Rioting has broken out in Wall Market that has caused an estimated 24,000 in damage and stolen goods as the Riot Control Task Force comes unto the scene…_

"Wow," Tifa spoke, stunned, "we really were lucky when the earth quake hit."

"&# yeah," Cid wearily agreed.

"Do you never stop cussing?" Yuffie remarked.

"This is nothing like what you ing let out last night miss potty-mouth," Cid retorted.

"Children, lets not bicker," Cloud unenthusiastically rebuked.

Yuffie and Cid shot him withering glares.

"Well I know that Vinny will never forget last night," Cait Sith snickered, "I got pictures."

Suddenly, despite being made out of medal, plastic, circuit board and wire, the robotic cat felt a cold, deadly menace looming behind him. Looking around frantically, scanners buzzing for any sign of threat, Cait Sith examined all the other beings in the room but found nothing. But even without any physical manifestations of hostility, the robot still felt mortally worried for its existence.

"Well, maybe not," Cait Sith nervously stammered, "I think that I accidentally deleted those pictures anyway."

Immediately the feeling of cold menace disappeared, although the robot was blatantly lying when it said that the pictures were deleted (there could still be a good use for them later on…).

_A new report has just come in_, the radio buzzed, _multiple sightings of two extraexterrestrial objects falling through the atmosphere have been sighted, but it is believed that the objects are not meteorites or comets. For it seems that one of the objects is burning hot silver while the other is a blazing emerald green. Never has the likes of this phenomenon been seen folks! This is scientific history in the making! Stay tuned for more updates on the Falling Stars and the earthquake as they come in…_

"Wow, that is just plain weird," Tifa commented, "first an earthquake in an area that has never experienced one before and now these mysterious falling objects."

"Not to mention that horrendous noise that happened during the quake," Nanaki added, "my ears are still buzzing from that."

"Do you think that they are connected?" Vincent queried.

"I don't know, but I'm sure that we'll find out soon enough," Cloud answered with a sigh.

"Looks like AVALANCHE is back in business," Barret stated.

_This is just in folks_, the radio suddenly shot out, _it appears that the silver and green objects are just minutes from crashing into the fields near the Chocobo Ranch. I repeat, the objects will impact in just a few moments! The armed forces are gearing up to rush to the site of impact just in case something happens, but they won't be able to get there for several more hours…_

No one was there to hear what came next for at the mention of "impact" and the "Chocobo Ranch" they had vacated the room through the back service entrance and were high-tailing it to Cid's airship, the Highwind.

* * *

The landscape zipped by as the Highwind roared through the sky above the landscape. The recovering lands outside of Midgar quickly turned into the green, lush springtime grasslands that lay further out from the blackened city. Within an hour and a half, the passengers aboard the airship could see the green and sliver tinged smoke trails that were coming from the mid-sized crater that was created by the object's impact. Fifteen minutes later they had landed a hundred feet away from the lip of the hole and were climbing down the ladder from the airship to the ground.

When Cid, the last to come down, walked over to where the others had gathered, they set off towards the impact site. The crater itself was not all that big or impressive. Roughly 200 feet across and 50 feet deep, nothing extraordinary stood out from the scene (except the big hole in the ground that hadn't been there before), until Nanaki looked down at the center of the impression and noticed the two faintly glowing objects that rested there. He mentioned his finding to the others and they puzzled over it until Yuffie spotted the fact that they objects weren't exactly glowing per se, more like that they were surrounded by a mist.

With nothing better to do, the group picked up their respective feet or paws and started climbing down the crater to the center. The slope of the hill was shallow and they took their time, waiting to see if anything unusual developed. But the two objects lying in the bottom of the impression stayed the same as they first had seen them and just a few moments later the members of AVALANCHE had gathered in a ring around the two objects. Now that they were up close they found that the mist surrounding the two objects wasn't exactly a regular mist. It seemed to be made up of small flecks of light. Just as the radio had reported that one of the objects had been burning green and the other silver, so was the mist that surrounded the objects colored green and silver respectively.

Yuffie was starting to look around for a stick with which she could poke the things to see if there was any reaction when a slight wind picked up. Slowly, the particles of light were carried away with the breeze, fully revealing what they had hidden less than a minute earlier.

Tifa gasped while Yuffie fell on her butt in shock. Cid let out a string of curses while Nanaki buried his face in his paws. Vincent stared at the two unmoving forms in astonishment. Barret, recovering his equilibrium, joined Cid in his curse-fest. Cloud took a few steps back, disbelief on his face.

"How is this possible?" he rasped out, "I though that they were dead…."

* * *

As normal, I start this story off with a cliffy. Tell me what you think. I should probably get the next chapter up by next week, faster if I get a more reviews (I think that three should be nice).

Now I wonder who our mystery persons can be?

Find out next chapter what AVALANCHE's (and more importantly Cloud's) reaction is to our new arrivals. What is the worse that could possibly happen (other else than stepping in Chocobo poop)?

A side note, this story will be taking place in the world of FF7 and I will be ignoring the events of Advent Children in this story. This doesn't mean that I don't like AC, I thought that the movie was awesome. I'm just not using the characters or events of the movie in my fic since it doesn't fit in with the plot very well.

Reviews are the food of fan fiction authors and without them, stories starve and die. So feed this fic and send review.


	3. Familiar Strangers

Pawns of Prophecy

By Turtlerad17

Disclaimer: I don't own FF7 nor will I profit from this story.

Note: If you haven't read Children of Prophecy yet, do it now before proceeding any further. Hardly anything will make sense if you don't. This story is the sequel to CoP and you need to have read it to understand this story's background and plot.

* * *

Chapter Two- Familiar Strangers

Everything felt so heavy and out of focus. The usual vibrancy of the energies that brushed against their essences as they so freely traveled through the stars seemed muffled and distant. The feeling was akin to having one's ears stuffed with cotton when normally one could hear the world around them as clear as a bell. Only this muted and detached state of being extended beyond the five human senses. For beings that usually were so free and unrestricted by any sort of barriers, whether physical, mental, magical or otherwise, they felt enclosed and weighed down by something indescribable.

One thing though remained unaffected. The bright, intangible connection between them was as vivid and strong as ever. Even now, vibrations of confusion and foreign sensations were traveling back and forth across the link. As they sent queries, replies and observations to each other, slowly some of the heaviness that was muddling their minds lifted. The more the numbness that was muffling them dissolved the clearer and more coherent their thoughts became. They were trying to figure out what their situation was when new and alien yet somehow strangely familiar sensations started to be known to them.

Struggling to understand these foreign feelings, the two sensed of a form of communication going on near them. The type of communication that was going on seemed to be very rudimentary and limited in form and use. They were used to feeling communication in the forms of energy signals or thoughts, not this primitive use of waves of gas particles to convey the exchange and transmition of knowledge and information that was going on around them.

_I seem to recall this form of communication being used by some of the organisms that we have encountered in our travels,_ one of them thought to the other.

_Yes, it does seem to be very familiar,_ the second thought back, _I feel like we could actually or have in the past used this type of information exchange._

_We have used this type of communication before!_ The first recalled.

_That's right! We used that form of exchange back on our homeplanet,_ the second remembered.

_We're not feeling this communication,_ the first suddenly realized, _we are **hearing** a spoken conversation between organisms in some form of atmosphere._

_They are **talking**!_ The second thought back, _I can even understand the language they are talking in! What in the universe is going on?!_

The response from the first was cut off by a startled exclamation and a lot of violent yelling.

"What do you mean we should wait?!" an agitated male voice yelled, "she is next to that, that _thing_ and you think we should stand back while he hurts her again?!!"

"No, I'm just telling you to think rationally before jumping to conclusions!" a rich female voice answered.

"I agree with Tifa," a low, smooth voice cut in, "we could very well make an unfixable mistake before jumping in with no questions asked."

"But we should at least get Aeris away from Se-" the first male began.

"Hey look!" a high pitched female voice interrupted, "they're coming to!"

Everyone stopped their debating to stare at the two stirring figures lying in the dirt at the bottom of the crater.

"Who…how…. what?" a groggy female voice mumbled.

"Ugh, everything is so distorted," a deep male voice groaned.

Simultaneously, two pairs of green eyes flickered open and stared uncomprehendingly at the group of sentient (or so they assumed) creatures around them. Still confused, the male and the female blinked several times without consciously knowing it.

_Wait a sec?! Talking, hearing, seeing?!!!_ the woman thought, old experiences coming back to her, _Sephiroth, we have bodies again!!!_

_I know,_ Sephiroth thought back, _it feels just like my first one that I had on our birth planet, except something is slightly different…._

_Like something new has been added?_ Aeris asked.

_Exactly!_ he realized, _wait, you too?_

_Me too, _she answered, _what are they?_

_Try moving it,_ Sephiroth suggested.

Closing her eyes and concentrating on the changes of her new body Aeris focused her entire will on moving the heavy weights within her. Suddenly a pair of limbs popped out of her back and she continued to flex and relax her new extensions to try to get used to them.

"$!!!! What the #$& hell?!" Cid barked, "where did those $-ing enormous wings come from?!!!!"

_Wings?!!!!_ Both Aeris and Sephiroth thought.

_I have wings…_ Aeris dazedly thought.

_So should I if we both felt the same heaviness in our bodies,_ Sephiroth concluded as he concentrated on releasing his own set.

Much to the astonishment of the individuals around them, a pair of downy white wings sprouted out of Sephiroth's back just seconds after Aeris's did.

Cid just let out a string of incomprehensible obscenities.

Sephiroth and Aeris looked at each other and were taking in the other's strange garments when a large broadsword was shoved in Sephiroth's face.

"I think that you need to answer some questions," a cold, deadly voice spoke, "the first of which is why you have come back to life."

Needless to say, Sephiroth did not take well to being threatened and ordered around. His reaction was immediate, he reached for his sword only to be met with the brush of feathers and empty air. Confusion momentarily filled his mind before doing the next instinctive thing that came to him. He held up his hand, palm facing towards the blond broadsword wielder. A ball of emerald green fire blasted out of it and impacted on Cloud's shoulder guard, sending him flying ten feet back.

In a blink of an eye, the others had their weapons out and leveled at Sephiroth. He just ignored them and got to his feet then helped Aeris to hers. Cloud jumped back to his place in the loose circle of fighters that surrounded the two, Materia blazing from its slots in his broad blade. Tifa quickly cast a minor healing spell on the blond while Nanaki quickly cast M-barrier on the entire group.

"Get away from her you psychopath!" Cloud yelled.

"Aeris, come over here, its not safe where you are," Tifa called.

"How do you know our names?" Sephiroth demanded, finally speaking after all this time.

"How could I not know you, you monster!" Cloud snarled, "you were the one who burned down my hometown and slaughtered all of its inhabitants!"

Sephiroth just gave him a blank stare.

"Aeris, how can you stand so calmly next to the person who murdered you in cold blood?" Cloud implored, somewhat frantically.

"Murdered?" Aeris asked in a daze, "well apart from pushing me around a bit, Sephiroth has never harmed me."

"What do you mean, never harmed you?" Barret exploded, "the guy stuck his &$-ing sword through you!"

"He never did that!" Aeris yelled, starting to hyperventilate, her eyes zipping frantically around.

A strange buzzing was filling her ears. It only intensified as she studied the blond man with the spiky hair that she assumed was leader of the group. An old, repressed memory of heavy hands, ripping cloth, desperate pleas and splattering blood swam before her eyes. Suddenly, an image of a man with long, black spiky hair overlaid the face of the blond-haired, blue-eyed warrior. She panicked.

"No, it was you who tried to hurt me!" she shrieked, "you were the one who betrayed me and tried to force yourself on me! But how have you come back to life?!! Sephiroth killed you back then in that depilated old shack!"

"What?" Cloud asked confused and worried, "Aeris what's wrong? Don't you recognize me?"

He took a step toward her. She shrieked again.

"Get away from me Zack!" Aeris shouted.

Cloud stopped in bewilderment.

"Seph, don't let him get me," she pleaded.

He didn't need to be told twice. In a flash, he gathered her up in his arms and took to the sky, wings beating furiously. Cloud just started at the pair in shock.

"What the hell is going on here?!" he yelled.

* * *

Sephiroth wasn't sure how long he had been flying, but a sudden sharp wind blasted him, causing his wings, which he still was not used to, to fumble mid-stroke. They fell almost thirty feet before he regained his balance, Aeris' weight in his arms making it harder for him to stay balanced. The strong winds continued to buffer him, so Sephiroth made a quick and sloppy landing.

_If I, having some experience, am having trouble flying, Aeris will be much worse at being able to do this_, Sephiroth thought.

He sat down on the trampled grass and settled Aeris in a comfortable position in his lap.

_Just why were we called here?_ Sephiroth wondered, idly running his fingers through Aeris's lush hair, _why are we being brought into this planet's problems? Why would it go to the trouble of dragging us down here, forcing our formless essences to take physical shape? What possible reason would we have to want to help? We already paid our dues and we were either rewarded for or transformed by our sacrifice. Since then we haven't interfered with the events of other life forms or other planets. Why now and why this specific world?_

Aeris' stirring brought him out of his contemplations. She let out a small yawn as her hands snaked their way up to play with his sliver hair. A small, tender smile made its way across Sephiroth's face. Oh how he was blessed to have the love of this precious creature. _This is what matters_, Sephiroth thought_, Aeris is the only thing that matters to me in this whole lonely universe_. A small frown formed on her face as a few strands tickled her nose. When it looked like she was about to sneeze, Sephiroth moved the pieces of hair away, chuckling lightly.

Opening her dazzling, green eyes, Aeris gazed up at her soulmate's stunningly handsome face as a warm, content emotion filled her heart. Slowly she sat up and turned around. A cloak of security fell around the two of them as she reached her hand up to trace the contours of Sephiroth's face. _Oh how glad I am to have met my other half_, Aeris fondly reminisced, _even if at that point we really didn't like each other too much_. She giggled at the ancient memory.

Aeris bent forward to plant a gentle kiss on her love's lips. As she was pulling back, he wound his arm around her shoulders and pulled her back in for a deep, more passionate one. When he finally let her go, he had a big grin on his face and Aeris was beet-red. Shyly, despite having been by his side for so long, Aeris slowly drew her gaze up to her love's similar-yet-different eyes. And that was when everything faded out as the two became lost in the other's eyes.

It was one of those all-too-brief moments where the world stops moving and time itself seems to be frozen. It was one of those moments that lovers are prone to have where all that seemed to exist is the other. A moment suspended in eternity, fragile as a soap bubble, but all the more beautiful for its frailty. It is during such times that the true feelings of the heart most strongly show through and emotions pass through physical barriers as if they were merely air.

To look upon the newly incarnated beings sitting in the grass at that moment would be like looking into their very souls. The love of the odd, but well-matched pair had for each other had never waned and had only grown stronger as the eons passed by. It would be painfully clear to any passerby that they were hopelessly smitten and were very fond of each other. Unfortunately for them, such moments never last and this one was no different.

The unfamiliar sound of a large massive object making a smooth landing amongst a flurry of wind interrupted their reverie. It startled them so badly that Aeris lost her balance and sent both her and Sephiroth crashing to the ground. With wide eyes Aeris watched the gargantuan yet graceful flying machine settle gently onto the wind-flattened grass about five hundred feet away. They watched the group that had earlier accosted them earlier disembark from the now motionless machine. Sephiroth was no less astonished by the group's reappearance, but he did not show it nearly as much.

_Well, this world must have some form of advanced technology to be able to create and control a thing such as **that**_, Aeris mentally communicated with Sephiroth.

_Not as advanced as others we have seen,_ Sephiroth noted,_ I doubt that they have even left the atmosphere of this planet. _

_I never will understand technology_, Aeris complained,_ the inner-workings of machines will always mystify me._

_That's only because we grew up in a world with very, very primitive technology, dearest_, Sephiroth fondly explained to her.

"I know, my other half. But what I want to know is why these people that we have never seen before seem to recognize us? We never have even _seen _this world before we were so unceremoniously dragged to this planet," Aeris puzzled, continuing their discussion verbally.

"One thing I do know, is that they won't be able to surprise us like that again. I have a feeling that their presence here does not bode well for us," Sephiroth declared.

By this time the group of sentient organisms (their earlier encounter had convinced Sephiroth that they were in fact sentient, but not necessarily smart) had come within hearing distance of the pair and they had obviously had heard the last few minutes of conversation between the two. Once it had become apparent to the group of intruders that they had the full attention of Aeris and Sephiroth, they quickly covered the remaining distance between them until they stopped about ten feet away.

_Seph, I think that we have to stop calling those beings organisms_, Aeris cautioned.

Sephiroth snorted, _well technically they **are** organisms, but I have a feeling that they wouldn't take too kindly with being referred to as so._

"What do you want with us?" Sephiroth bluntly asked, breaking the silence between the two groups.

"For one, why is your pale, albino ass doing back here after all the evil things you have done, next to the very woman you murdered no less, you sadistic son of-" Barret broke out before Tifa quickly silenced the burley man.

"What Barret means to say, is why, or even better how the both of you have come back to life two years after your deaths," the red-cloaked figure clarified.

"Two years?" Aeris quizzically asked, "we have not have had physical shape for far much longer than that."

"Far longer than two years…?" Tifa echoed back.

"More like several eons," Aeris responded, "but it really is hard to tell after all this time."

"Is that even humanly possible?" the perky young ninja asked.

"We're not human," Sephiroth briskly informed the girl, his lip curling, "we are far above your state of existence, you primitive creature."

"Primitive creature?" the teen shrieked, "I'll let you know that that my bloodline is seeped in history, tradition and centuries of refinement, you walking nutcase!"

"Pity, the traits of your ancestors seemed to have skipped the current generation," Sephiroth caustically remarked.

With a snarl of incoherent rage, the girl launched her body at Sephiroth, her Conformer clutched tightly in her hands, aiming to deliver some serious damage to the man who dared to insult The Great Ninja Yuffie Kisaragi, Princess of Wutai and next ruler of the greatest nation on the planet. Or at least tried to anyway since her attack was halted almost instantly by Vincent as he restrained the ranting female with his metal claw. Sephiroth just scoffed at the belligerent female.

Then, much to the surprise of everyone, Aeris reached up and smacked Sephiroth on the back of the head with a loud _thwack_! The group of people who had confronted the astral beings just looked on in confusion as the brunette and the silver-haired man started at each other, gesturing furiously with their hands in what the others thought was a silent argument.

"Alright already! Stop nagging me," Sephiroth finally spoke, "I promise to be civil with the ignorant louts."

"Sephiroth…" Aeris growled warningly.

"Fine!" he ground out in aggravation, giving in.

"What just happened?" Tifa asked, confused, "I could have sworn that not a word had passed between you two."

"We were communicating with each other by sending messages across our soul bond," Aeris explained.

"Okaaay, then," Yuffie let out, "so the two of you, who don't even recognize us, can talk telepathically?"

"No," Sephiroth curtly told her.

"We communicate by sending images, feelings and messages across our spiritual connection," Aeris helpfully clarified, "we do not have the ability to speak mind to mind, like some advanced species do."

"You speak as if you have seen many things outside of this world or of the distant past, almost as if you are from a different time or place," the red-orange beast pondered.

The blond broadsword user who had been studying the two of them silently during the pervious exchange, finally spoke up and asked a simple question that would, days from now, set off a chain of reactions that none of the people present could have imagined.

"Just what are you guys anyway?" Cloud asked.

"To answer that question is difficult," Aeris answered, "we are not even sure ourselves what we are. We used to be very different from what we are now, closer in make-up to your species I think, and the events that lead up to that change would require a lengthy discussion."

"We're not going anywhere," Cloud coolly responded.

* * *

It took the rest of the day and well into the night before Aeris, with help from Sephiroth at certain parts, explained the ancient prophecy that had been made on their world that had caused the dominant race to wipe to Aeris' people in fear and ignorance. The same prophecy that had caused the both of them to be hunted for most of their lives and the same prophecy, along with a lot of pushing by their home planet, that drove them into each other's arms. Aeris told them about how Sephiroth had been lied to by the alien that had spawned him for most of his life and how the last few months they had on their planet were the best of their entire earthly existence. She vividly described their sacrifice for their world and how in a blaze of glory they fended off the threat to all life on their planet and their subsequent transformation.

They had moved from the field of trampled grass and into the huge flying machine that Sephiroth and Aeris learned later was called an airship once the sun set and continued their story inside the artificially controlled atmosphere of the aircraft. Aeris finally stopped talking after she described them shooting away from their home world in a streak of light, unwilling to disclose the intimate details of their existence after that to these strangers.

"I don't buy it," Cloud announced, "for all I know Aeris, Sephiroth could have brainwashed you into believing that outrageous story in hopes of manipulating you. Give us some proof that what you have told us is true."

"I agree with Cloud," Nanaki agreed, "that story seems too far fetched to be believable."

"We have no evidence I can think of to back up our story," Aeris admitted softly, "but nevertheless, I am telling you the truth."

"Not all of it," Vincent observed, "there are huge gaps in your story that I find highly suspicious, leading me to believe that you are misdirecting if not outright lying to us."

"It makes no difference to me if you believe us or not," Sephiroth stated, "all that matters to me is why we have been dragged to the surface of this miserable planet and figuring out how we can leave as quickly as possible."

"That is not helping your case very much," Cloud coldly replied.

"That is none of my concern," Sephiroth asserted, "get this straight, I could care less about this planet or its inhabitants. All that matters to me is getting both Aeris and myself off this mud ball and back in our astral forms where we belong."

A frown crossed Cloud's face at that declaration. The mood of all the members of AVALANCHE noticeably darkened and the temperature in the planning room in the airship seemed to plummet several degrees as well. Heedless of the dark glares that he was receiving Sephiroth continued.

"I warn you now that any attempts to separate the two of us will likely result in your deaths. We went through too much to finally be together just to have some ignorant humans try and tear us apart," Sephiroth promised, his wings flaring slightly in threat.

The whole group of fighters had to suppress the urge to start a fight with the arrogant and uncaring silver-haired man. The only thing that stopped them was the fact that Aeris was standing right next to him silently supporting Sephiroth, without any qualms. If anything, she drew closer to him before resting a hand on his shoulder. When Sephiroth slipped an arm around her waist, Cloud's hackles rose and he growled slightly, anger and jealously burning in his eyes.

"Fighting will get us nowhere,' Tifa pointed out, trying to keep her cool.

"I concur," Vincent added, "I suggest we get some rest and tackle this problem tomorrow when we are less stressed and less likely to make mistakes in the heat of the moment."

"Fine," Sephiroth announced, "although I expect you to explain tomorrow your side of things, like how you know our names when we have never even seen the lot of you before and why you are so hostile towards us."

"Agreed," Cloud ground out.

"If you don't mind, me and Sephiroth will be going outside now," Aeris told them.

"You are perfectly welcome to go out," Cloud responded, "but Sephiroth is staying on the ship where we can keep an eye on him."

Any feelings of goodwill that Aeris had towards the spiky-haired leader practically vanished at that statement.

"I'll stay on board then with the man I love," she countered frostily, reflecting on the blonde's earlier hatred and resentment towards her soul-bonded.

"Then Vincent, Tifa and I will take you to your quarters," Cloud spoke, his voice equally cold, "if you will follow me."

Not wanting to aggravate things any further, Sephiroth and Aeris fell in step behind the group's leader with the other two following behind them.

_Such gracious hospitality_, Sephiroth scornfully told Aeris, _I feel right at home. Just like the good-old-days where that bitch Jenova repaid me for all my loyalty by attacking us and forcing us to do her dirty work._

_I just don't understand_, Aeris spoke, _what did we ever do to earn such hostility from these strangers?_

_I don't think that their problem is with you love, their hatred seemed to be aimed entirely at me_, Sephiroth reflected, _just goes to show that humans, no matter what planet they live on are ignorant, petty creatures that only care for themselves. _

_I think that you aren't giving them a fair chance Sephiroth,_ Aeris protested, _we haven't even heard their explanation for their behavior yet. The least we could do is hear them out before making any decisions._

_You are too forgiving for your own good Aeris_, Sephiroth countered, _but if you hadn't seen the potential in me all those years ago, we most likely would not be here right now._

_This discussion is getting us nowhere_, Aeris announced, _I think that Vincent was right, we need some sleep. Funny that for all our existence after we left our planet we are now once again weighed down by such physical needs like breathing and sleep._

They came to a T-intersection in the hallway. They paused for a moment before Cloud turned right. Aeris had only taken a few steps down before Tifa gently took her by the elbow and tried to lead her in the opposite direction. Immediately Aeris withdrew her arm from the other woman's grasp. The busty brunette grabbed her hand, this time with a bit more force. Again Aeris disengaged herself from Tifa.

"What are you doing?" Aeris demanded.

"I'm just taking you to your room," Tifa answered her.

"Is there some reason why I cannot sleep in the same room with the man who loves me and who I love back?" Aeris asked offended.

"But Aeris I…" Tifa tried to answer somewhat bewildered.

"I told you before," Sephiroth angrily cut in, "I will not tolerate anyone trying to separate us. If Aeris wanted go to with you she would have. But she obviously does not. The least you could do would be to respect her wishes."

"But I-" Tifa tried again.

"Tifa, if she wants to stray with him, let her," Vincent calmly stated, "I don't think that Sephiroth would actually hurt her at the present moment. He has had plenty of opportunity to do so and he has not given any indication of violence towards Aeris. Let them be for tonight, we can sort this out tomorrow."

Tifa blinked. She was not used to Vincent speaking so much. But lately, ever since they had found Aeris and Sephiroth unconscious in that crater, Vincent has been speaking much more, trying to be the voice of reason and observation when the others failed. It wasn't like he was defending Sephiroth per se, in fact he had agreed with Cloud with not buying into their fraudulent tall tale. But he really did seem to be trying to keep anyone from making any hasty judgments or actions.

She couldn't figure out what the ex-TURK's reasoning or thoughts were behind his uncharacteristic behavior, but his attempts at peacekeeping were paying off so far. The martial artist shrugged, it really didn't matter what Vincent did as long as he doesn't do anything drastic. Besides, trying to figure out what that man thinks is like trying to figure out why Cid cusses so much, simply impossible. She sighed and ran to catch up with them.

* * *

They turned another corner and finally came to the end of the hallway. Cloud opened the door and gestured for Aeris and Sephiroth to go inside.

"This is where you will be sleeping," Cloud said.

Sephiroth took in the slightly stale straw that was littered across the entire floor along with the larger pile of it in what looked to be a stall for some sort of animal. The odor of unwashed feathers and sweat wafted across his face and he grimaced.

"This is where you expect me to sleep?" Sephiroth asked with distain.

"All of our other rooms are full, besides with those giant wings, you couldn't fit much of anywhere else in the ship," Cloud snidely answered as if imagining that even this room was too good for the winged man.

"Well I also have big wings too if you hadn't noticed," Aeris retorted, "so why was Tifa trying to direct me to another room that I couldn't sleep in because of my giant wings?"

"I was going to share my room with you," Tifa uncomfortably admitted.

"It doesn't matter, since it appears that Sephiroth doesn't merit being treated like a normal person, neither do I since we are the same," Aeris flat-out told her, her voice heavy with disapproval.

Sephiroth smirked, highly amused as his petite soulmate lectured the uncomfortable and fidgeting dark brunette.

"Therefore," Aeris continued, "we both will sleep I these luxurious accommodations that you have so _graciously_ given to us."

Sephiroth silently applauded his darling lover. She rarely made such acidic comments. He was quite proud of her for putting that human chit in her place. Now if only she would tell off that blond with the ridiculous hairdo who kept looking at Aeris in a way he did not like one bit. That man was too interested in his Aeris and he had better soon learn to back off or he would be liable to loose his life. Aeris was his and only his. No one else could have her but him.

_Just like you belong to me and only me, my other half,_ Aeris's amused and slightly possessive message came to him across their soul connection.

_My other half_, Sephiroth thought to himself wistfully, _her private pet name for me. Not that it isn't true. Aeris compliments me so perfectly and fills in all the gaps in me that ache without her presence. _

Aeris let out a big, loud yawn.

"All this verbal sparring has worn me out today," Aeris announced tiredly, "I'm going to get some sleep."

"Not to mention this the first day we have been in a physical form for what seems like forever," Sephiroth added.

"Mmmm, yes forever," Aeris murmured sleepily, leaning against Sephiroth's chest, "sounds like fun."

"Goodnight Aeris," Tifa called as she walked off towards her own bed, "if you need anything, just call."

"Sweet dreams Aeris," Cloud fondly whispered to the dozing girl as he turned to go as well.

"Back off, you worthless human male," Sephiroth warned in a soft yet deadly tone, "she is already spoken for and you would be wise to remember that."

Cloud was about to open his mouth when Vincent cleared his throat loudly.

"Leave him, Cloud. He only wants to rile you up," Vincent advised, "be the better man and walk away."

Cloud silently glared at Sephiroth before swiftly exiting the room. Vincent followed right afterwards, closing the door behind him. A small _click_ was heard a few seconds afterwards.

"So they would treat us like prisoners and lock us in this nasty animal stable to prevent me from escaping," Sephiroth growled, "they sure do think highly of their technology if they think that this metal box could hold me. Even without my Masamune, I could easily rip the door off it hinges and get out. What imbeciles."

He looked down at the sleeping face of the angel in his arms.

"But I suppose I should humor these children and play along with this façade," Sephiroth mused, "it will make the lower their guard and be more prone to making mistakes."

He took another look at the straw-lined stall and snorted.

_Stupid humans_, Sephiroth thought as he made himself comfortable in the slightly musty straw and settled Aeris in his lap. Sleep came for him soon afterwards.

* * *

Sounds of feet pounding overhead woke Sephiroth from his deep, dreamless sleep. He gently untangled himself from Aeris who had wrapped her arms, legs _and_ wings around him last night before standing up and flaring his new wings to their full length to get rid of the cramped sensation he had from sleeping on them last night. Sounds of Aeris rustling in the straw as she yawned and stretched reached Sephiroth's ears as he turned around to see her.

Bright, refreshed green eyes fluttered open and then glittered when the first thing that Aeris saw upon waking up was her beloved's face. She too stood up and stretched her wings as Sephiroth walked over to grasp the metal doorknob. He was slightly surprised to find it unlocked. Apparently someone who wanted to make a good impression with Aeris unlocked the door sometime early this morning. Despite wanting to curl up with Aeris and go back to sleep on the surprisingly warm and comfortable hay, Sephiroth opened the door and waited for Aeris to exit before following behind her.

They followed the sounds of the footfalls and conversation above them till they reached a metal ladder attached to a wall. The climb up was made slightly difficult since they had to hold their wings close to their bodies since they couldn't fit through the opening to the next floor if the new limbs were held normally. Both of them let out a sigh of relief when they got past the hole and they could let their wings go back to their natural position and release the tension in their flight muscles that came with holding their wings so close to their bodies.

Continuing to follow the sounds of chatter coming from up ahead, Aeris was totally unprepared for the barreling ball of female teenager that came running around the corner and crashed into her back. The sudden impact sent Aeris crashing into the wall then as the young ninja yelled out a distracted apology before taking off again she dazedly slumped to the floor. Sephiroth quickly rushed to her side and was helping her get up when three hundred pounds of pure muscle and bone rammed into him, flattening him to the floor.

The breath was knocked out of him as he tried to shove the spitting mad black man with the gun-arm off of him. Barret didn't even bother to apologize or even look down to see who he had squashed with his mighty bulk before he shoved himself up and rushed off in hot pursuit of the madly giggling teen while yelling insults, threats, and obscenities at the top of his lungs.

Sephiroth groaned in pain, he felt like a piano had been dropped on top of him (not that he was too far off weight-wise). Painfully he drew himself up to a semi-sitting position then scanning the surroundings to see if any other human torpedoes were coming his way and if it was safe to get up. When he saw no sign of other people brashly rushing about the hallways, using the wall for support he heaved himself up to a standing position. He glanced over at Aeris who was in the process of peeling herself from the wall she had slumped against after torpedo Yuffie had impacted on her. Aeris had plastered herself back to the wall at the sight of the dark, human cannon ball that was hurtling down the hallway after the ninja. A wise decision that prevented her from being ran into twice within one minute.

The sounds of the pursuit continued ahead of them as they cautiously made their way towards the renewed chatter of the rest of the AVALANCHE members. Suddenly, the sounds of the living artillery shifted and all-too-soon they were coming back towards the pair. Aeris, spying an open door right behind Sephiroth unceremoniously shoved the both of them into the dark room, just a moment before Yuffie and Barret ran by on lap two around the airship. They took a moment to recover their breath before taking in their surroundings.

"That sure was unpleasant," Sephiroth commented, "it is not everyday that I get mowed over by a black man with a hunk of metal attached to his arm."

"Somehow I feel that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this group," Aeris added, slightly amused yet worried.

"I fear for our lives," Sephiroth dryly remarked.

Aeris giggled and stuck her head out the door to check if Yuffie and Barret were on lap three. When she saw and heard no more signs of the chase, she walked back out into the hallway and gave Sephiroth an all's clear signal. He followed her with slight trepidation before coming up beside her and continuing on. A few seconds later, Aeris's hand found his and they continued on towards the others, holding hands.

They turned a corner and suddenly the hallway opened up into spacious, yet cozy eating and gathering area. Abruptly all the different conversations in the room halted when Sephiroth and Aeris entered. They stood like that staring at the group that they had met yesterday and the members of AVALANCHE stared right back. Things were starting to get uncomfortable when the former human torpedo got up and approached them.

"So did you sleep well last night?" Yuffie cheerily asked.

"If you count sleeping in musty straw in a smelly animal pen as getting a good night's sleepy, then yes," Sephiroth answered with a blank face.

"Oh that's good to hear, why don't you two come over and get some breakfast?" the teen offered not really getting the heavy ironic tone of Sephiroth's statement.

"Would that be before of after you and your companion ran over us in the hallway?" Aeris teased.

Caught red-handed, the troublemaker went bright red. The rest of the people in the dinning area looked at the three with their mouths practically hanging open. Sephiroth glancing out of the corner of his eye saw the dark-skinned, burly man who had crashed into him flush slightly at Aeris's teasing.

Yuffie recovered then next instant before grabbing Aeris' hand and automatically Sephiroth's as well before dragging the two over to the others. She made a quick round of introductions before plopping herself down in an overstuffed, broken down comfy chair, a smug look on her face. Aeris hesitantly scanned the faces of the other people there for any sighs of aggression but they kept their faces carefully schooled. She sighed before snagging a few muffins and two pieces of fruit before drawing Sephiroth over to a well-worn loveseat next to the dull orange easy chair that Yuffie was occupying.

Sephiroth plucked a muffin and what looked like a pear from Aeris's hold before leaning back and closing his eyes. Despite the less stressful and intense mood in the room than was around them last night, Sephiroth could feel a headache coming on. He took a bite of the generic muffin before slumping back into the loveseat.

The rest of their meal was spent in silence, the others quickly finishing off their own food before briskly exiting the area. Sephiroth, finding that two muffins and a piece of fruit was not enough to satisfy his newly rediscovered hunger went back to the table with the food and piled a few pancakes and some scrambled eggs on a plastic plate. Aeris, in retaliation for Sephiroth's earlier theft of her food, abruptly snatched the top pancake from his plate and started munching on it contently. Sephiroth didn't even bother to roll his eyes at her antics, being long used to such behavior from Aeris.

Not long after the last person of the group of fighters left the room, both Aeris and Sephiroth finished their meals, downing a glass of juice each before leaving the room as well. A few minutes later the couple made their way to the balcony of the airship. Aeris, wanting to test out her new wings leapt off the railing and glided down to the ground, Sephiroth right behind her. Several of the others that were standing on the grass waiting for them rolled their eyes at how the couple was showing off their flight abilities.

Calmly, Sephiroth and Aeris approached the group that was standing together in much the same way they had before the previous two times. It looked like the two women, the red beast and the former Turk had let some of their hostilities fade a bit. Cloud, Barret and Cid on the other hand looked even more guarded and suspicious of the approaching pair. Cloud in particular had eyes full of pure venom for the silver-haired man as they came closer.

_Third time's a charm_, Aeris hopefully thought, taking a look at the body language of the group in front of them.

"Well?" Sephiroth demanded.

"Well what?" Cloud countered.

"I believe that you owe us an explanation," Sephiroth pointed out, "we told you our story yesterday, now it is your turn."

Cloud scowled at Sephiroth, not liking being ordered around by the former killer. The two men continued their silent standoff for several more moments before Tifa started telling their story, starting with the bombing of the Sector Five reactor. Cloud, slightly miffed that his best friend was the one that started the story took over soon thereafter, going on to describe the events that lead to their departure from Midgar and their subsequent journey across the globe on a mission to stop a power hungry company from draining the lifestream and a vengeful mad-man from destroying the world.

Everyone was closely watching the reactions of Sephiroth and Aeris to their tale, suspicion rising in many of them when both of the lovers visibly flinched every time the name Jenova was mentioned. A haunted look came into both of their eyes as they described the events between their discovery of the Black Materia and their race against time to the Ancient City. A look of horror crossed Aeris' face as the death of the other Aeris was laid out in sparingly details. A look of frantic denial crossed Sephiroth's face when he heard that the other man bearing his name was the one to commit the act.

When Cloud finally came around to the events that happened right after the other Sephiroth's defeat, startled recognition flashed across the couple's faces as they relived the similar events that had taken place on their planet at the end of their physical existence. Both Aeris and Sephiroth were deeply troubled by the similarities to their own tale. The huge differences between the two histories only increased their conviction that this planet had called them here to meet these people to prepare them for some threat in the not-too-distant future.

Tifa, seeing how troubled Aeris was by how close Cloud seemed to be to this planet's former Aeris, led her away for some "girl talk". Sephiroth not sensing any threat from the other female allowed her to lead Aeris off and put some distance between himself and the rest of the group as well.

"I'm not the Aeris you knew," the former herbalist confessed, "I feel like all of you are expecting things from me that I have no idea of."

"It's okay," Tifa responded, "take as much time as you need to come to terms with things and eventually I believe that you recall who you really are."

"But that's just the thing," Aeris burst out, "you guys keep on assuming that I am this other Aeris when neither me nor Sephiroth have ever set foot on the soil of this planet before."

Tifa just placed a comforting arm around Aeris's shoulder.

"Cloud, out of all of you especially seems to expect certain things of me," Aeris continued, "things that I cannot provide."

Tifa's heart clenched at Aeris's recognition of the feelings the blond swordsman held for the resurrected Cetra. It pained her to have Aeris back in the picture, especially since in the last few months, Cloud had been showing signs of interest in her after all these years. Now with Aeris back, Tifa felt that her chances with Cloud were rapidly plummeting, despite Aeris's steadfast apparent devotion to Sephiroth.

A flash of yellow caught Aeris's attention from the corner of her eyes. Focusing her gaze on the fast approaching yellow dot, Aeris tried to make out what it was. When the large, thick claws and the sharp beak of the giant yellow bird became visible to Aeris, she let out a yell of fear and bolted. A few seconds later she took wing, rapidly homing in on her lover who had a confused look on his face. He held his arms out for her, but her speeding mass knocked him to the ground as Aeris crashed into his embrace.

She was hyper ventilating and had hid her face in his chest as Sephiroth sat up, comforting the frightened girl. The yellow bird that had made Aeris so scared got closer and Aeris whimpered into Sephiroth's chest. Hastily he drew both of them up before pushing Aeris behind him. Just feet way from them, the bird came screeching to a halt and Tifa jumped off of its back. Aeris peeked out from behind Sephiroth's wings.

"W-what is that thing?" Aeris stammered.

"Oh you mean this Chocobo?" Tifa asked in confusion.

"You can ride that thing?" Aeris asked with slight fear.

"You mean that you don't know what a Chocobo is?" Tifa asked bewildered.

Aeris emphatically nodded her head. Yuffie burst out laughing while the rest of the group stared at her in shock.

"That is frickin' hilarious," Yuffie hooted, "you really don't know what a Chocobo is?"

"They're really sweet if you don't act threatening to them," Tifa helpfully added as she scratched the bird under its beak.

Aeris relaxed and approached the bird with wonder in her eyes. Tentatively she reached up and petted the bird's neck. The chocobo softly cooed at the attention.

"That convinces me," Yuffie announced, "if you really had no idea what a Chocobo was, you really aren't from here."

Barret and Cid rolled their eyes.

"It's about time," Sephiroth muttered, glancing at Aeris as she was absorbed with the big yellow bird.

He shot his gaze back at the blond-haired leader and back to the chocobo.

_There certainly is a resemblance_, Sephiroth derisively thought.

Cloud, as if reading Sephiroth's thoughts scowled.

"So now that we have finally sorted things out," Tifa began, "we need to find out just why the two of you are here."

"You stated that your lives on your planet were greatly influenced by this prophecy you mentioned," Vincent recalled, "perhaps there is a similar reason that you are here."

Aeris looked up at that. Sephiroth and Aeris looked at each other and groaned.

"Not another prophecy," Aeris whined.

"But if there is such a thing on this planet, we haven't heard of it," Cait Sith stated.

"Perhaps it is not common knowledge," Nanaki mused, "if it exists, it could be recorded down somewhere in the records at Cosmo Canyon. The library has a massive collection of ancient manuscripts from all over the world."

"To Cosmo Canyon it is," Cloud announced.

* * *

Whew! Twenty pages completed in this chapter in just two days. My fingers ache and my eyes need a rest. I think that a big cup of hot coco is in order.

Hope you readers enjoyed this chappie. It is about the average length of the last five chapters to the previous story in the series. I know that a sequel to CoP is a bit unlikely based on how the previous story had ended, but I have had an idea for a sequel to CoP long before I even started writing the first story.

I would like to give my thanks to my reviewers for your support and my BETA, Tishannia, for looking over this chapter for mistakes that I missed that could have lowered the quality of the story.

Reviews are the food of fan fiction authors and without them, stories starve.


	4. Fickle Fortunes

Pawns of Prophecy

By: turtlerad17

Disclaimer: I don't own FF7 nor will I profit from this story.

* * *

Chapter Three: Fickle Fortunes

When the group had decided to go to this "Cosmo Canyon" to try and find a reason for her and Sephiroth being on this world, Aeris immediately wanted to test out her new wings and fly there. That idea was swiftly vetoed, much to the former Cetra's disappointment, when the chain-smoking blond pilot told her that Cosmo Canyon was halfway across the world and unless she could fly for days on end, there was no way she could make it across the large ocean separating the two continents. So back onto the ship the others climbed, although Aeris awkwardly flapped her way up onto the deck wanting to get as much use out of her wings as she could.

Everyone, with the exception of Aeris and Sephiroth, quickly made their way to their favorite places on the airship, the young ninja finding her favorite bucket as the engines started up. The airship lifted off the ground in an unsteady lurch then gained altitude quickly in a much smoother fashion. Aeris, despite the tense atmosphere of the others in the Highwind, started engaging in conversation with the others being the naturally friendly person she was. After several minutes of monosyllable answers to her questions from the red cloaked gun-man, Aeris decided to move on. She noticed that Sephiroth had taken up residence in a shadowy corner away from the others. Having none of that from her soul-bonded, Aeris marched up to him and dragged him over to her next victim, err conversation companion.

When the two had approached Cloud, the blond's icy stares directed at Sephiroth quickly deterred Aeris before she even got within ten feet of him. Cid, after the first question told them to shove off (though in not as nice of words) since he had to concentrate on piloting the giant aircraft. Yuffie was spending so much of her time over a bucket that it was impossible to carry on a decent conversation with the young ninja.

Moving onto the next person they skipped the burly black man who was emitting loud, rumbling snores. Aeris managed to get in about half an hour's worth of conversation out of the cinnamon-eyed brunette before her discomfort overcame her as she excused herself and went to go and stand by Cloud.

Sephiroth took one look at the bouncing, hyperactive robotic cat on top of the fat, ugly white beast and steered Aeris clear of it, not wanting to have to do anything with the inane and obnoxious thing. Noticing that the red flame-tailed beast was the last person left, Aeris warily approached him despite observing no signs of aggression on Nanaki's part.

A loud comment from the seasick ninja about Nanaki's breath being worse than his bite, which prompted a low growl from the creature, quickly settled Aeris's half-formed trepidation and she happily dragged her silver-haired love over to grill Nanaki on anything and everything about the planet, himself, the group and whatever else came to mind. The red furred beast put up with over three hours of questions from Aeris who had somehow dragged her reluctant companion into the conversation, before he shook his head in exasperation and vacated the room.

Having run out of people to talk to (much to Sephiroth's visible relief), the two made their way to the outside deck to watch the scenery go by. By now, they had passed over the Western continent about half an hour ago and nothing but the endless sparkling ocean that stretched across the horizon could be seen. While Sephiroth was more than happy to remain out on the deck away from the others, Aeris soon grew bored and cold and went back inside. Sighing, Sephiroth followed her back into the warmth and enclosing metal of the airship, already missing the crisp ocean air outside on the deck.

Aeris spent another twenty minutes fully exploring the airship before flopping down on a worn couch in the eating area, bored out of her mind. Sephiroth slipped down beside her and Aeris automatically snuggled closer to his warm body. She let out a sigh and fell asleep. Having nothing better to do, Sephiroth following her shortly thereafter.

* * *

The sound of a loud, yapping mechanical voice brought Sephiroth out of his slumber. It instantly grated on his nerves and he had the desire to silence the thing that was making such racket.

"But c'mon Tifa! Why can't I?" the obnoxious voice spoke again.

"Because the last thing that they need is you to be around and wake them up, you worthless piece of plastic and steel!" roared a deep voice.

"If all of you don't shut up this moment, I cannot be held responsible for my actions," Sephiroth groaned.

Absolute silence.

"Well looks like we were too late," the one who Sephiroth recognized as Yuffie commented.

"Then there should be no problem with what I want to do," the mechanical nuisance also known as Cait Sith spoke up again.

_ Only humans could make such a complicated yet worthless piece of technology_, Sephiroth complained to Aeris.

_You're cute when you're grumpy_, Aeris joked.

Sephiroth scowled, _I am not grumpy. Just annoyed that these imbeciles cannot seem to figure out that we do not desire their company. I swear that someone is out to get me._

_Sephiroth, the universe does not hate you_, Aeris pointed out, _you just like to act like it does._

_The fact that we were dragged down onto this mudball's surface shows that something out there hates me, _Sephiroth shot back_, plus we also have to put up with the presence of this group of morons_.

_Now you're just being melodramatic, you big drama queen,_ Aeris teased, _personally I think that they are sort of cute how they act with one another. They obviously are very close. They act just like big kids._

_You're just too softheaded Cetra_, Sephiroth answered.

Aeris poked him in the side rather hard for calling her the infamous nickname. Sephiroth tried his best to ignore her, unsuccessfully.

"Hey you guys are doing that physic thing again," Yuffie declared, "that's no fair! We have no idea what you are saying to each other. For all I know you are making fun of us."

_The girl isn't far off,_ Sephiroth thought.

"Look is there a reason why you people are here?" Sephiroth demanded, "if not, get lost. I can't stand to be around people like you."

He received glares from everyone in the room for that.

"Don't mind him. He's just grumpy," Aeris told them, "so why don't you tell us what you want with us?"

"Iwanttotakeyourfortune!!!" the hyper robot burst out.

"Wha?" Aeris asked confused.

"I want to take your fortunes," Cait Sith repeated again more slowly.

"For heaven's sake cat!" Barret began, "I don't know why you are so &ing determined to do that. The fortunes your stupid moogle produces are always wrong or have entirely nothing to do with the person every time!"

"Remember the time you took my fortune you stupid robotic fleabag," Yuffie recalled, "I asked about how much materia I would get for my birthday and your fortune said 'Watch out for falling chickens'."

"Hey, the moogle was malfunctioning that day!" Cait Sith defended.

"Then there was the time you gave Cloud a fortune on what to get Tifa that one time and it told him to 'Think pink'," Yuffie continued, "Cloud ended up getting her some pink fuzzy slippers that she burned on the spot. Tifa hates pink! Everyone knows that."

Cait Sith just mumbled something incomprehensible.

"Then there was the time you gave Barret's fortune that said-" whatever Yuffie was about to say was muffled by Barret shoving and then holding a pillow in her face.

Some muffled explicatives came from beneath the pillow as Yuffie and Barret wrestled around trying to get rid of the pillow.

"-the point is that every time you take someone's fortune," Yuffie continued when she successfully shoved Barret off of her, "is that the parties involved end up hating you for the next two weeks."

"But Yuffie," the robotic cat practically wailed.

"Shut up you damn cat!" Barret roared.

A crushed expression came across the cat's features and he wandered off to sulk in a corner.

"I don't think that it would do any harm," Aeris spoke.

The robot perked back up and took a few hesitant steps towards the couch.

"Aeris," Sephiroth warned, annoyed.

"At the worst we could get something that would make the others laugh," Aeris added ignoring Sephiroth, "what's the worst that could happen?"

The others groaned.

"Allrighty then!' Cait Sith yelled, rubbing his paws together, "since the little lady volunteered she can go first."

Then both Cait Sith and the stuffed moogle it was riding atop started violently pumping its limbs and bodies back and forth in the most bizarre and somehow frightening dance Sephiroth and Aeris had ever saw.

"What the hell is it doing?!!" Sephiroth asked alarmed, "it almost looks like it is ja-"

"Sephiroth!!!" Aeris yelled at him.

Just then the cat and the moogle stopped it weird contortions with a small ding! And a strip of paper was printed out of the moogle's stomach. It ripped it off and handed it to Aeris.

"Your favorite desert is rice pudding" Aeris read.

She made a face at the words rice pudding. Obviously she did not like rice pudding.

"Eh, heh heh," Cait Sith laughed nervously, "lets do another one."

Again the cat and the moogle did its oddly suggestive dance before another slip of paper was handed to Aeris.

"The flowers will bloom early this year" Aeris read off puzzled.

"No wait!" Cait Sith called out, "I can do better!"

Again it and the moogle did its dance and handed one last piece of paper to Aeris.

"Silver eats purple, green eats black," Aeris read off, "what is that supposed to mean?"

"Dunno," Cait Sith admitted, "once in a while I get weird ones like that."

Barret snorted.

"Okay!" Cait Sith announced, perking back up, "now it's your turn Mr. Grumpy!"

Sephiroth growled and glared daggers at Cait Sith while Aeris just giggled.

Once again the robotic cat and the stuffed moogle went through its routine and printed out another slip of paper. It held the paper out to Sephiroth for a few moments while he glared at it and the robotic cat before snatching it out of the moogle's appendage with a low snarl. He read the fortune and was just about to rip it apart when Aeris plucked it out of his hands.

"So what does it say?" Cait Sith asked eagerly.

"Beware of your shadow it may take you heart," Aeris read slightly disturbed.

"Okay then! That's enough fortunes!" Cait Sith announced before hurrying away.

"That's a really creepy one," Yuffie spoke, "the last time Cait Sith produced something like that was when…"

"Was when we first visited the Gold Saucer and Cait Sith gave Cloud's fortune," Tifa, who had been listening silently up until now, quietly recalled with an odd tone in her voice.

"Yeah," Yuffie added.

"What did Cloud's fortune say?" Aeris asked hesitantly asked.

"You will find what you're looking for but will loose something precious in the process," Tifa recalled.

Everyone fell silent at that painful reminder of how they ultimately lost one of their members halfway through their quest to save the world. The silence would have continued on for a bit longer but Cid's yelling came through the speaker system, startling them all.

"Okay all you worthless deadweights!" Cid's voice rang out, "buckle your seat belts and grab onto the nearest person because we will be landing at Cosmo Canyon in ten minutes. Once we do get your &#, ( hides off my airship and get down to the archives so we can get our # asses outta here as fast as we $&& can!"

"Well isn't that just charming," Yuffie commented.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

* * *

After telling Aeris and Sephiroth how to find the Archives at Cosmo Canyon, everyone on the Highwind dismounted from the airship and went their separate ways. Aeris, still slightly miffed at not being able to fly for the last fourteen hours, took off from the Highwind's deck and streaked out towards the observatory at the top of the settlement, Sephiroth right next to her.

They didn't go straight to the Archives after reaching the town, but spent almost an hour flying about the surrounding canyons exploring the area. A crowd of people gathered on the ground as they gaped at the pair trying to pull off some complicated aerobatics. When they finally landed, a scowl sent in their direction by Sephiroth swiftly dispersed the crowd of watchers while Aeris just shook her head in exasperation at Sephiroth's moodiness.

_No wonder why the people in AVALANCHE are so suspicious of us_, Aeris stated, _with you acting that way it is a miracle that they even allowed us in their company._

_And yet somehow you stick with me,_ Sephiroth replied in a somewhat teasing tone, if _you can manage to put up with me, so can they._

_The aren't in love with you, you dolt,_ Aeris told him, _being your soulmate has taught me a lot of patience over the millennia. But there are still times I want to strangle you when you are being particularly nasty and obstinate._

_I love you too Aeris_, Sephiroth responded.

"People are starting to stare," Aeris noticed, "come on, let's go find those Archives."

"What we talk about is none of their business," Sephiroth stated, "whether out loud or over our bond."

"I agree, but humans are just naturally inquisitive," Aeris explained.

"It's still none of their business," Sephiroth restated as they disappeared from sight into one of the tunnels in the rock that were carved all throughout Cosmo Canyon.

* * *

Sephiroth, Aeris and the other members of AVALANCHE spent countless hours pouring over ancient and crumbling texts, not finding any hint of why the winged pair was on this planet. Aeris finally gave up in late hours of the evening with a snarl of disgust before stomping out of the Archives looking for Sephiroth who had left almost an hour before.

After almost forty minutes of fruitless searching, she finally found him perched on top of the roof of the observatory, gazing listlessly into the night sky. The sound of heavy wing beats stirred him out of his reverie and he blankly watched Aeris land a bit awkwardly next to him. They spent the next few minutes in silence, before Aeris spoke up.

"Wow, the view of the stars is absolutely spectacular from up here, isn't it?" she asked, awed.

"Yes," Sephiroth simply answered.

"The constellations sure are different from what they were back on our planet," Aeris added.

"Yes, they are," Sephiroth responded.

Suddenly Aeris was struck with such strong homesickness that her next words got stuck in her throat. Sephiroth, feeling the twin to Aeris' homesickness rising in himself, embraced her as she started to cry softly. They spent quite some time like that before her tears stopped and Aeris was able to speak again.

"I wonder if we will ever return?" Aeris asked wistfully.

"I don't know," Sephiroth truthfully answered her.

"I hope so," she replied.

"So do I," Sephiroth softly spoke.

They spent the rest of the night on the roof of the observatory before drifting off to sleep a few hours later.

* * *

Aeris and Sephiroth were greeted the next day as they woke up with a glorious sunrise that turned the red-brown walls of the canyon into rivers of molten red and orange as the dawn's light spilled over them. It was absolutely breathtaking and the two watched the sunrise in complete silence in the slightly cool air of the new day. Soon, sounds of the other inhabitants stirring and getting ready for the day drifted up to them and with a reluctant sigh, the two glided off down to the main gathering place near the still burning Cosmo Candle.

"Hey there you are!" Tifa called out, "come in, Barret and Yuffie have breakfast duty today so you better come fast before they burn the food."

Twin grumbles arouse from Sephiroth's and Aeris' stomachs at the mention of food. Quickly they hurried after the brunette not wanting to eat burnt food for breakfast. After following Tifa through a few turns and up a ladder, they emerged onto a scene that looked like a war zone. The sound of people's yelling voices filled the space and a mess of plates with half-eaten food, crumpled napkins, puddles of coffee and juice, smears of jelly and pancake syrup and a few broken eggs covered the floor.

"What on earth happened here?" Aeris asked.

"Breakfast ala Yuffie," Nanaki remarked.

"Okay peoples, heads up!" Yuffie warned, "flapjacks coming your way at ten o'clock!"

"Not again," Tifa groaned, burying her head in her hands as several pancakes came flying through the air.

"Hey you damn stupid brat," Cid yelled as he ducked under a flying pancake, "watch where you are #ing throwing those $#ing things!"

"Shut yer trap you old geezer!" Yuffie yelled back at him as she threw pancake towards the pilot, hitting him smack dab in the middle of the face.

"Goddam $$ing, stupid careless twit!" Cid yelled.

"Same old Cid," Tifa sighed.

"Hey Tifa, Aeris, megalomaniac!" Barret yelled over the din as Sephiroth scowled at what the black man referred to him as, "come and get some grub before these bottomless pits scarf it all up!"

"Save two stacks of pancakes and a plate of scrambled eggs and hash browns for us," Tifa hollered back.

"Sure thing girl!" Barret shouted, putting aside the food she had asked for and three plates.

As the three were splitting up the food between themselves, Cloud yelled out, "Hey Teef! Over here!". Tifa, well used to the hijinks of breakfast with all the members of AVALANCHE headed over to the blond with the spiky hair without missing a beat. She ducked as an omelet went sailing over head and then continued on without a second glance. Vincent caught the omelet perfectly on his plate without even looking up as he read a book.

Aeris and Sephiroth looked at each other for a moment before making their way over to an unoccupied corner dodging more food projectiles, hopefully where they could eat out of the line of fire. Aeris had just finished her eggs and hash browns and was about to start on her pancakes when she noticed that something was missing.

"Could someone pass me some maple syrup and strawberry jelly?" she called out.

"Sure thing, coming right up!" two voices answered.

Aeris, who should have been expecting it, was caught off guard as a jar of jelly and a plastic bottle of syrup came flying across the room from two different directions. The jar of jelly she was barely able to catch as she reached high over her head with both hands, but unfortunately, the bottle of syrup was not quite so lucky. With a smack the bottle of syrup hit the wall and exploded, showering Sephiroth with the sticky liquid.

Instantly all action in the room stopped as everyone turned their stares at the fuming silver haired man.

"If I ever find out who threw that bottle, I will murder them by drowning them in a vat of honey," he threatened, deadly serious before stomping out of the room.

Aeris ran after him, trying not to laugh, while calling out to him that she would help him wash the syrup off. After the couple's abrupt departure, the room fell into silence for several minutes. Then everyone broke out into hysterical laughter (with the exception of Vincent), the image of an offended Sephiroth covered in syrup storming out of the room too much to handle. It took quite a while for them to settle down before they were able to resume eating without snorting their food out of their noses.

"Opps," Tifa sheepishly admitted as the group continued with breakfast.

* * *

It was almost three hours later that Sephiroth and Aeris came through the archway into the Archives with damp hair and feathers. There was a relaxed air between the two and they seemed pleasantly worn out as they started pulling scrolls and books off the shelves.

"What took you so long?" Nanaki inquired, "even with those wings it shouldn't have taken so long to clean off that mess."

"I couldn't help it if Sephiroth couldn't keep his hands to himself," Aeris replied with a blush.

"Your hands were just as busy as mine were love," Sephiroth informed her with a slight grin as Aeris blushed deeper.

Yuffie whistled and yelled out, "you go girl!"

Aeris buried her face in Sephiroth's arm as a faint blush spread across Sephiroth's cheeks. Cloud's mouth dropped open at that and Tifa reached over to gently close it. Cid and Barret let out some catcalls, making Aeris and Sephiroth even more embarrassed.

"Our activities between me and Aeris while we are alone are none of your business," he stiffly told them, still faintly blushing.

"I wonder if his hair is that color everywhere?" Yuffie cheekily asked.

"Yuffie!!!!" everyone screamed at her.

"That's a mental picture that I could have done without, brat!" Barret yelled at the smirking teenager.

Yuffie ignored him and went back to reading the musty text she was going over. Tifa and Vincent followed her example and went back to reading the texts spread out before them. Cloud shot a disgusted glare at Sephiroth and did the same. The others, seeing Cloud, also went back to their readings. Sephiroth and Aeris, each with their arms full of scrolls, books and loose papers made their way over to an empty table and spread out a scroll each and started reading as well.

They continued closely examining the old writings of long dead authors hour after hour, stopping for a quick lunch around noon, the piles of read and discarded texts ever growing as book after book, scroll after scroll that didn't have the answers they were looking for were put aside. It was late into the night when Cloud got up and arched his back, popping several of his vertebra, relieving the pressure from hours of inactivity. He announced that they probably wouldn't find anything this day and that it was time to stop for the night.

Dinner was quick and everyone woodenly ate their meals in silence, tired from fruitlessly searching through the texts all day practically nonstop. Cid and Tifa were stuck doing kitchen duty so the others stumbled out of the dinning area, thinking of nothing but collapsing in a soft welcoming bed.

Aeris and Sephiroth having no idea where to sleep grabbed some bedrolls from a storage room and camped out near the Candle before slipping into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.

* * *

The next two days followed the same pattern as the first, with the notable exception of flying food during breakfast. When Aeris and Sephiroth woke up the second day, they had slept so deeply that they did not rise till after the sun had risen and the legendary heat of Cosmo Canyon was already starting to be felt so early in the day.

Breakfast had been much more subdued that day than it was on the previous one, the meal passing in silence before everyone went back to the Archives to resume their research. The sun rose in the sky and peaked before slowly sinking towards the horizon while everyone in the Archives continued going through text after text. Every once in a while someone slipped out for a break in singles or pairs, returning about fifteen minutes to an hour later to resume their search for any hint of ancient warnings about the trouble sure to come.

When Aeris stood up, stretched and left the room early in the afternoon, Sephiroth got up a few minutes later and also went out. A few eyebrows were raised at this seemingly innocent and unhurried departure, but they went back to their reading as soon as the winged man left the room. No one said a word when they came back about fifty minutes later, their hair and clothing looking distinctly ruffled and messy. From the slackness in their shoulders, one could tell that they were much less stressed when they came back than when they left.

As the hours went by and people periodically taking breaks from their search, the piles of discarded texts were starting to grow as tall as some of the tables. The biggest piles of already read books were beside where Vincent and Cait Sith had sat, Vincent never taking a break, Cait Sith not having to since he was a robotic instead of a biological creature.

Lunch and then dinner came and went and it was around one am when the last person finally put down their book and crawled into the nearest bed, asleep before their head hit the pillow.

* * *

On the fourth day of searching, Aeris and Sephiroth were awoken at the crack of dawn by a sleepy Tifa who informed that it was their turn for kitchen duty this morning. Aeris was rubbing the crust out of her eyes and Sephiroth let out a jaw-cracking yawn as they both stumbled towards the community kitchen that the members of AVALANCHE used whenever they were in Cosmo Canyon. They both stared stupidly at the empty kitchen the idea that they were in charge of preparing the food not registering in their minds. They continued staring in their zombie like state before Tifa yawned and spoke up.

"Well good luck you two," Tifa said, "the others should be here in about half an hour. The skillets are in the bottom drawer, the cooking utensils are in the jar next to the stove, the flatware is in that cupboard, the silverware is in that drawer, and the food is in that closet behind you. I just hope that one of you can at least produce edible food."

Sephiroth took another look at the now clean and tidy kitchen.

"I have no idea what to do," he blankly stated.

Aeris giggled slightly.

"Well you get out the ingredients I tell you to as I get out the cookware and we will go from there," she told him, taking command.

"Yes sir," he acknowledged, taking out ingredients for the morning's meal as Aeris listed them off.

Soon all thoughts of the day were emptied from their minds as they started mixing and cooking things.

* * *

"Hey Cloud, time to rise and shine," a cheerful voice broke into the blond's slumber.

He groaned and rolled over, mumbling "five more minutes mom", before falling back asleep.

_No matter how good of a warrior and no matter how serious Cloud got, he will always be a boy at heart,_ Tifa thought amused.

"C'mon sleepy head, time to get up and get some breakfast. We have another day in the Archives ahead of us," she spoke, this time poking the blond in the side a bit.

Cloud let out a louder and deeper groan, at hearing about the prospect of more research in the Archives. He was even more determined to sleep in. Tifa, on the other hand was getting a bit annoyed. Her next words sent Cloud jolting awake.

"Cloud, you know that it is Aeris' and Sephiroth's turn at kitchen duty this morning," she told him with a smile, knowing that that bit of information should fully wake him up.

Sure enough, Cloud's eyes snapped open and he shot to his feet.

"You can't be serious?!!" Cloud exclaimed.

"Yup," Tifa answered smugly, "those two have been eating the fruits of our labor all this time. It is high time that that those lazy lumps get their turn at kitchen duty."

"Teef, are you crazy? How can you be sure that those two won't burn down the kitchen? Do you even know if either of them can cook?" Cloud frantically asked.

"I'm sure that they can manage," Tifa responded.

_Or at least I hope they can_, Tifa thought.

"Do you really think that someone like Sephiroth can produce a decent pancake to save his life?" Cloud incredulously asked.

"I'm sure that Aeris is fully capable of cooking," Tifa assured him.

"Teef, according to them they have been flying through space for the last few hundred years as balls of energy. Are you sure that letting them cook is a good idea?" he implored.

Tifa looked a bit worried at that.

"C'mon," Tifa spoke grabbing Cloud's hand, missing the slight blush that Cloud got, "let's go see how they are doing."

* * *

When Cloud and Tifa finally reached the dinning area, they hand to push through the others to see what was going on. The scene that greeted them made Cloud and Tifa stop in their tracks. Suddenly they knew the reason why the others were just standing there, not making any move towards the food. Sephiroth was producing plate after plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage while Aeris was skillfully flipping pancakes until they were golden brown and tossing them perfectly on top of a steady growing pile with one hand while making omelets with the other.

Tifa and Cloud watched the two work, along with the rest of AVALANCHE, as they proceeded to make a wonderfully appetizing breakfast. Aeris' occasional commands were shouted over the sizzle of the stove and grilling food to Sephiroth which he followed to exactly word-for-word immediately after the command was issued. The tantalizing aromas filled the kitchen and dinning area making many mouths water in anticipation.

"Okay, after that last batch of eggs, that should do it Sephiroth!" Aeris' words rang out across the room.

With fluid movements Sephiroth dumped the scrambled eggs onto the last empty plate and dumped the skillet into the waiting sink full of soapy water with the rest of the cookware to soak. The hot pan hit the soapy water with a loud hiss.

"Food's ready!" Aeris announced.

A mad stampede ensued.

Barret and Yuffie were fighting over the plate heaped with bacon while Cid and Cloud were piling pancakes and scrambled eggs onto their plates. Tifa was trying to stop Barret and Yuffie from spilling the bacon onto the floor while Vincent was sedately piling food onto his plate. Aeris, finishing washing her hands, put a plate almost overflowing with eggs, bacon and sausage on the floor away from the others for Nanaki. She grabbed her plate full of food and made her way over to Sephiroth who was already seated at the table that they had claimed as theirs and started eating as well.

Several people got up for seconds before the meal was finished, dumping their dishes into the sink full of soapy water before heading out to their different destinations. Last night at dinner, everyone had decided that they were sick of reading books and that they would spend next day taking a long, well deserved break. Finally, the last person cleared their dishes into the sink and walked out of the room. Aeris and Sephiroth finished the last bits of food on their plates and headed over to the sinks to start washing the dishes.

They spent the next half hour in comfortable silence, the sounds of swishing water and clinking dishes the only sounds to break the quiet. Aeris tossed her wash rag into the nearby hamper and placed the last plate onto the drying rack. Sephiroth pulled the plug at the bottom of the sink, allowing the water to drain out the bottom. Both of them washed their hands and left the kitchen.

"Thank god that's over," Aeris sighed, rubbing her neck.

Sephiroth obligingly started massaging it, moving onto her shoulders after he had worked the knots out of her neck.

"Mmmm… a bit to the left," Aeris moaned.

"You know, if it were not for your taking the lead this morning, breakfast would have been a total disaster," Sephiroth commented.

"You're not that bad of a cook," Aeris lightly protested as Sephiroth continued his ministrations.

"No, but put me in a kitchen on my own and I would have no idea what to do," Sephiroth conceded, "if left by myself I would have just continued standing in the doorway until the others had arrived."

"You really are hopeless without me," Aeris giggled.

"Don't I know it," Sephiroth replied, chuckling slightly.

"But you know, Aeris," he continued, "there are many other things other than preparing a meal that I am hopeless without you."

"Oh?" Aeris asked, "like what?"

"Like this," he answered, swiftly bending down to kiss her senseless.

"Oh, like that," Aeris spoke slightly dazed when they stopped.

"Yes like that," Sephiroth reaffirmed as he did something that made Aeris groan.

Aeris had started grinding her hips against Sephiroth's suggestively and he let out a strangled groan. Aeris smirked in satisfaction.

"You really are hopeless," she huskily stated.

"Lets take this to another place before someone stumbles upon us," Sephiroth ground out, drawing her close.

"Yes, lets," Aeris drawled before she pulled Sephiroth down for another kiss.

* * *

It was a day of relaxation and a time to forget their worries temporarily. Everyone used their free day to good effect. Cid vanished into the engine room of the Highwind while Yuffie dragged Vincent off to do some cliff climbing. Tifa and Cloud went on a hike with a heavy picnic basket saying that they would not come back until near sunset. Nanaki spent his time catching up on current affairs of the inhabitants of Cosmo Canyon while Barret went out to do some target practicing and had a long phone call with his daughter.

Cait Sith went out and tried to wheedle people into allowing them to have their fortunes told, with varying success. He was a big hit among the kids that lived in the settlement, but the adults tended to avoid him after a few really embarrassing responses to the fortunes he had made for the grown-ups. The children found the cat's awful and totally wrong predictions absolutely hilarious and so Cait Sith happily spent the day entertaining the younglings of Cosmo Canyon. This was a good arrangement for everyone. Cait Sith got to tell his fortunes, the children were happily entertained and the parents got a break from having to look after their offspring.

As for Sephiroth and Aeris, except for a quick lunch out near one of the shops, no one saw hide nor hair of the two. And if someone heard an odd sound or two coming from one of the unused store rooms, well they just assumed that it came from some harmless creature that had taken up residence in the place.

* * *

The sun was just starting to touch the western horizon when the members of AVALANCHE started tumbling back into Cosmo Canyon after their fun-filled day off. Everyone gathered at the entrance of Cosmo Canyon as they came back in singles and pairs.

Aeris and Sephiroth had reappeared from wherever they had vanished to. Cid came out from the Highwind covered in grease streaks. Tifa and Cloud came back with big smiles and an empty picnic basket. Yuffie came back dusty and tired but very happy, a worn-out Vincent trailing behind her with multiple rips in his clothing and a few scratches along his arms and legs. One by one, the parents reclaimed their kids from Cait Sith's attentions and after the last one was dragged off protesting, he bounced over to the others. Barret came back with a satisfied grin, gun-arm out of ammo. Nanaki came over to the others when the woman who owned the outdoor supplies shop that he had been conversing with went to close her shop.

Finally after everyone had come back from their day's activities, they all made their way up to the communal kitchen and all worked together to make a quick and simple but hot and tasty meal. Each person either grabbed a dish or a pile of utensils, plates, or cups and marched back outside and settled in a circle around the Candle to eat their dinner.

Sounds of convsersation filled the air as everyone recounted the day's events. An easy and light hearted atmosphere surrounded the chattering group of friends, the good cheer of everyone there making them forget past grievances to the degree where they successfully drew Sephiroth into several interesting conversations and one or two heated debates.

"I can't believe it," Barret sniffed, "my little girl Marline is growing up so fast. Why just today she got her pair of roller skates and is quickly learning how to use them. Soon my baby will be moving out and heading off to college."

"And this fortune that I gave to this one lady made her so mad," Cait Sith boasted, "she turned purple and her face puffed up like a blowfish. Then she started yelling at me…"

"And then Vinny tripped over his long cape as we were battling these monsters that had suddenly attacked us," Yuffie dramatically recounted, " and then I pulled out my trusty Conformer and made mincemeat out of the beasties and saved Vinny's skinny, pale butt! Then we…"

"Of course you know that Yuffie is quite prone to over-exaggerating," Vincent stated.

"And I mean $&!" Cid exclaimed, "that clog in the backup air filter tube was so large that I almost thought that a cat got stuck and had died in there. Well I tell you I went into a no holds barred battle with the thing and dammed if it didn't take me almost an hour to get the thing out. Then when it was removed I found…"

"I found out that the lady in charge of the storage had been having a pest problem while I was gone," Nanaki explained, "and we spent quite a bit of time finding and killing all the pests…"

"Do I even want to know what you two did today?" Tifa asked Aeris and Sephiroth.

Sephiroth gave her a blank look.

"That's what I thought," she answered own question.

"Hey guys, I have an announcement to make," Cloud's voice rang out above all the other conversations.

Everyone stopped talking and gave him their full attention.

"Well for the last few weeks I have realized many things about my life and the people in it," Cloud began a bit nervous, "I had put a lot of thought into what I wanted to do concerning my future and I felt that today was the day to get somethings settled. So while Tifa and I were out taking our picnic, we started talking."

"We talked a lot about our hometown, our childhoods, how we finally met so many years after I left to become a SOLDIER and what happened afterwards, and well…" Cloud trailed off unsure how to continue.

"Just get to the point Spike!" Barret yelled out, followed by a chorus of "yeah!"s and "spill the beans!".

"WellIfinallytoldTifaaboutmyfeelingsforher!" he blurted quickly.

"What did you just say?" Yuffie asked, picking earwax out of her ear with her pinky finger.

"Well I told Tifa that I love her and-" Cloud tried again.

"Bout time Chocobo Head!" Cid yelled.

"Before I was so rudely interrupted," Cloud started again, frowning at the chain-smoking pilot, "I was about to say that Tifa told me that she loves me too-"

"Duh!" everyone yelled.

"I was about to say, if you guys would stop interrupting me-" Cloud tried again.

"We're going to get married!" Tifa shouted out, no longer to contain herself.

"Hot damn!" Barret yelled.

"Congrats Tifa!" Yuffie exclaimed hugging her.

"Thanks Yuff," Tifa replied with tears in her eyes.

"Good luck man," Cid congratulated Cloud, shaking his hand, "so how about a cigar?"

"Don't you try to get my fiancée to smoke tarmouth!" Tifa yelled at Cid.

Cid just threw his head back and laughed.

"Looks like I'll have to talk to Shera again about getting you to drop that dirty habit," Tifa mused.

Cid gulped.

"Tifa is one hell of a woman, so you better treat her right or I will have to deliver some serious whoop-ass to you if you don't," Barret threatened.

"I'll take that to heart," Cloud responded chuckling.

"Congratulations on your engagement Cloud," Vincent spoke up, "I wish you a long and happy life together."

"Thanks man," Cloud told him, "that means a lot coming form you."

"So will I get my first niece or nephew?" Yuffie asked with a mischievous grin.

"Yuffie!" Tifa scolded.

"What?! I've always wanted a younger sister or brother!" Yuffie exclaimed.

As the others continued to congratulate and question the newly engaged couple. A feeling of sadness came over Aeris.

"We never had anyone congratulate us on our union," Aeris whispered sadly to Sephiroth.

"We do not need the approval of others about our relationship," Sephiroth commented, "besides if anyone on our home world had found out that we were going to be married we would have been hunted down to the ends of the earth and killed out of their ignorance and fear."

"I know," Aeris sniffed, "but sometimes I miss the experience of sharing our happiness with close friends and family."

"We had no friends or family back then," Sephiroth pointed out.

"I know," Aeris acknowledged growing sadder.

"Don't get depressed Aeris," Sephiroth soothed, "we had each other and our planet. That was all that we needed, being with you is everything I ever wanted and needed."

"Thank you," Aeris agreed, giving him a weak smile," you always know how to make me feel better. But still, sometimes I can't help but wonder what things would have been like without that stupid prophecy…"

"Don't dwell on the what-ifs Aeris," Sephiroth advised, "no happiness can come out of that."

"At least we seem to be making some friends now," Aeris remarked, trying to be more positive.

"Tell you what," Sephiroth proposed, "if we have the chance, why don't we get married as well?"

"Oh Sephiroth, do you mean it?" Aeris asked excitedly.

"Of course, my other half," Sephiroth answered.

"I love you, my other half," Aeris declared.

"I love you as well my little angel," Sephiroth responded.

* * *

Gah, I had meant to advance the plot a bit more than this, but the chapter just kept on getting longer and longer. I had to stop here or the chapter probably would have gotten over forty pages long if I wanted to include the other plot advances that I had originally planned to. Gah! I swear that the story dictates what happens, not me.

Oh well, hope that you enjoyed it. I hope that it wasn't too sappy for you. There are just some points that every fan fiction author has to have fluff in their story. This one just has the WAFF in it a lot earlier than my others.

It seems that I have changed this chapter's title so many times. I had to keep changing the title to fit the content of the chapter. Just goes to show that choosing titles is not easy.

Oh yeah, I'm putting in a plug for my written work. It's called Musings of Emerald and Silver, it eventually will be a set of thirty or so drabbles about our favorite couple. Some of them will be in a series, some will be one-shots. I only have the first one up. I promised myself to finish this chapter before putting the next drabble up. Look for the next one sometime next week. I know that this is one that some of my readers definitely will want to read, it is sort of a short sequel to Shattered Perceptions.

A special thanks to my wonderful BETA, Tishannia, for proof-reading this chapter and finding the mistakes that I missed.

Well tell me what you thought of this chapter. Constructive criticism is appreciated and any flames will go towards keeping my frigid apartment warm. Any suggestions future chapters or stories? Please leave me your comments. I'm practically begging you.

Turtlerad17 out!


	5. Beware of your shadow

Pawns of Prophecy

By turtlerad17

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7.

* * *

Chapter Four- Beware of your shadow

The atmosphere during breakfast the next morning was much lighter and more easy-going than it had been the last few days. The announcement of Cloud and Tifa's engagement had temporarily put a halt to the resumption of their search through the Archives, as all the others had held an impromptu celebratory party for the new couple that lasted till dawn the next morning. Bone weary but light-hearted, everyone stumbled back to their beds to sleep off the aftereffects of the celebration. At three thirty the first person crawled out of bed, and took one look in the direction of the Archives, rolled over and went back to sleep.

The sun was just starting to set when people started trickling out, meeting at the communal kitchen to grab a bite to eat. Aeris, Vincent and Sephiroth had volunteered to make a meal for the group, using whatever was lying around. The result of their efforts was hot tomato and basil soup, pork chops in a white sauce, baked potatoes and some brownies for desert. Chatter about wedding plans and the future filled the room as the food was devoured.

All too soon, the last of the food was eaten and Barret and Cid were volunteered for dish duty by a smugly smirking Yuffie. The two reluctantly marched over to the sink full of dirty dishes and with some muttering (and more than one curse word) started clearing up the post-dinner mess. After everything had been cleaned up, everyone went their separate ways.

No one really paid attention to where Aeris and Sephiroth dashed off to, having become used to such sudden disappearances of the pair during the last week. Vincent could be found brooding in a shadowy corner somewhere while Cait Sith, Barret and Cid were off conspiring somewhere on planning Cloud's bachelor party. Needless to say it involved cigars, lots of alcohol, a big screen TV and some tapes of questionable content. Cloud and Tifa had wandered off somewhere to spend some quality time with each other. Yuffie was off lurking somewhere, planning some mischief no doubt. Nanaki had simply found a cool place out under the starry night sky and had fallen asleep.

If anyone had bothered to look up at the moon that night, they might have seen two dark forms in the sky above the Observatory, looping, twirling and spinning about one another in an aerial dance under the moonlight.

* * *

It was back to business the following day. Their one day break had turned into a two day break and some members of the group were feeling guilty for their extravagance as they buried their heads in the old texts. It was during dinner that night when Vincent, who was reading a book of poems that he had found, discovered quite by accident the very thing that they had been looking for. He had been in the process of flipping to the next page of the current poem that he had been reading when the piece of paper had fallen out. 

Yuffie, out of the corner of her eye, had noticed the fluttering page softly land on the floor as she was shoveling penne pasta with marina sauce down her throat. Sudden curiosity outweighing her hunger, Yuffie got up and picked up the piece of paper. Her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as she tried to make out its contents.

"Hey Vinny, what the heck is this?" Yuffie called out, waving the paper above her head.

Vincent calmly closed his book and shot a dead-pan look at the madly gesturing ninja.

"How would I know what you hold if you keep thrashing the paper about in the air like that?" he coolly rebuked.

Yuffie, not affected by the crimson clad gunman's words, sauntered over to Vincent and shoved the paper into his face. Sighing, Vincent took the paper from her grasp and positioned it at a different angle so he could look at it more clearly. His eyes had only surveyed the parchment for a few seconds before his eyebrows rose slightly in surprise.

"This is written in a language that I have no knowledge of," Vincent responded, handing the paper back to Yuffie.

"Well, that was a waste of time!" Yuffie announced.

Aeris, who had been watching the two ever since Yuffie first stood up, went over to see what the commotion was about. Deftly she plucked the paper from the ninja's slack grasp and took a look at what the page contained for herself. Seconds later she let out a loud gasp. Sephiroth was instantly by her side, worried. He took one look at what she was holding before he firmly pushed her down into an empty seat.

"So I take it that you know what language the words written on that paper is?" Vincent asked.

"No," Sephiroth stated, "I have never seen this form of written word before."

"But it seems like you can read it anyway," Vincent observed.

"Somehow," he replied with a slight frown.

"So what does it say, already?" Yuffie impatiently demanded.

"I think that the others should hear this," Sephiroth announced.

Yuffie, always one to get straight to the point, yelled for everyone's attention. Seconds later the room was completely silent and everyone's eyes were riveted on the slightly grinning ninja.

"You're on," Yuffie told Sephiroth as she sat down.

Everyone's attention shifted towards the sliver haired man. He stared back, unwilling to break the silence. Things would have continued on for a while if Aeris hadn't taken over. Standing up, she took the paper from Sephiroth with a slightly trembling hand.

_Three times the enemy of all will rise in an attempt to destroy the world,_ Aeris read, _the first attempt will bring an ancient race to the brink of extinction. The second will finally destroy it. The virus from the void of space will rise a third and final time when the Children of the Stars fall from the heavens. The planet will be cast into darkness and when all hope is lost, fire and wind will be unleashed, heralding the final battle. _

Thick silence fell across the room after Aeris finished reading the words that the paper contained. Cait Sith was the one to finally break the silence.

"Well if that isn't our prophecy of doom and gloom, I don't know what is," the robotic cat joked in an attempt to lift the serious mood the others were in.

"Shut it cat," Barret snarled.

"Things sure don't look good," Tifa commented.

"I wonder who these 'Children of the Stars' are anyway?" Nanaki mused.

"Three guesses and the first two don't count," Yuffie sarcastically snorted, "it's pretty obvious after all."

Everyone turned their gazes towards the winged couple.

"Don't even think that this mess is our fault," Sephiroth snarled defensively, "I can't help it if this planet literally dragged us down here. If I had any say in the matter, we would have never made landfall at all."

"He is right," Vincent, always the voice of reason, stated, "now is not the time to start pointing fingers."

"So how long do we have before the 'virus from the void of space' makes its presence known?" Tifa asked.

"Who knows," Aeris admitted, "needless to say, our arrival here is no coincidence. This planet must have been in dire need if it forced us down here to help battle this threat."

"Which by the way, is none of our concern," Sephiroth declared, "this is not our planet and this is not our fight. We should have never been involved in the first place."

"Big words with little to back them up," Cloud sneered, "this 'prophecy' even foretold your arrival. So suck it up and accept your responsibility in this mess you have created."

Sephiroth let out a wordless snarl and charged the smug swordsman. In less than a second he had Cloud pinned to the wall and was trying to choke him. Cloud wasn't going down without a fight though. Struggling, he managed to bring the silver-haired man to the floor as they continued to wrestle.

"Hey knock it off you two!" Tifa yelled, "the last thing we need a couple of broken bones and cracked skulls."

"Hey Teef, let me handle this," Yuffie announced, stepping forward as she brought out something from one of her belt pouches.

Yuffie closed her eyes in concentration for a second before popping them open again as a green glow came from between her fingers.

"Sleepel!" Yuffie shouted as a grin slid over her face.

Instantly Sephiroth dropped to the floor, out cold. Cloud struggled against the spell for a few seconds before following the winged man.

Aeris approached them, worry written all over her face. She quickly checked both of them for a pulse, a sigh of relief escaping her when she found a strong heartbeat in both men.

"What did you just do?" Aeris asked Yuffie, confused, " I didn't know that humans could use magic."

"Nah," Yuffie corrected, "I just used a Seal materia. Anyone can use them."

"Your planet lets just anyone use such powerful artifacts?" Aeris gasped.

"Powerful artifacts?" Yuffie echoed.

"Yes, this planet must really be young if it lets anyone use magical objects that can summon such powerful spells," Aeris explained.

"Hold it!" Yuffie spoke, "just how powerful are you talking about?"

"Why on the same level as Meteor and Holy," Aeris answered.

Yuffie cackled and Tifa broke out into giggles.

"I think that you are a bit confused," Tifa explained, "the spell is just a normal low-level spell that is less a hundredth the strength of Holy or Meteor. The kind of spell that comes from any regular piece of green materia."

"Low-level materia?" Aeris mused, "is such a thing possible?"

"Not only is it possible, it is everywhere," Tifa affirmed.

"So let me get this straight," Yuffie started, "you have no clue what materia is or what it does?"

"Well I know that every sentient planet with a lifestream has materia of destruction and healing," Aeris answered, "the Black and White materias are necessary to balance the power of so many souls in the Lifestream of a planet."

"You my comrade are in dire need of the finer points of matera," Yuffie declared as she came closer to Aeris, "how could you have lived for so long without knowing about these wonderful, magical orbs?"

"Umm, you really don't need to-" Aeris stammered.

"Of course I do!" Yuffie cut her off.

Aeris shot Tifa a look that said "help me!" The cinnamon eyed brunette just waved to the two as Yuffie dragged Aeris from the room babbling about the many uses of materia. Sighing, she just shook her head at Yuffie's antics before stooping down and proceeding to drag her snoring fiancé out of the room. The remaining people in the room looked at each other and then looked at the sleeping Sephiroth.

"I'm not dragging his carcass out of the room!" both Barret and Cid simultaneously announced.

"Not me either!" Cait Sith piped up.

Together the three scrambled out of the dinning area.

Nanaki chuckled slightly as Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. The ex-Turk was just bending down to sling one of Sephiroth's arms over his shoulder when Aeris burst into the room wild-eyed.

"Don't tell her that I'm here!" she hissed as she dived into the food storage closet.

Seconds later, Yuffie came barreling in, panting slightly.

"Have either of you seen Aeris?" Yuffie asked, "I was right in the middle of telling her about one of my more impressive battles when she ran off!"

Both Vincent and Nanaki shook their heads expressionless.

"Drat!" Yuffie yelled, "she must have gone in a different direction!"

And with that tornado Yuffie left the room once again.

"You can come out now," Nanaki called.

"Thanks guys," Aeris gratefully told them.

"Don't worry about it," Nanaki chuckled, "I am quite used to her tirades. If she doesn't find you in the next few minutes, she will simply give up and look for someone else to torment."

"I don't know how you can survive with her around," Aeris admitted.

"With lots of patience," Vincent answered.

A soft snore form the comatose silver-haired man interrupted their conversation.

"How about we get this lazy lump off to bed?" Aeris suggested as she drew Sephiorth's other arm around her shoulders.

"Good idea," Vincent agreed.

Together the two managed to drag Sephiroth's tall frame, wings and all, to an empty sleeping room and dump him onto a sleeping pallet. Aeris cheerily waved at Vincent's retreating figure as she snuggled against Sephiroth's side. Sephiroth in his sleep snaked an arm around her waist and drew her closer as she sighed in contentment. She soon fell into the realm of starlight and dreams.

* * *

A dark presence stirred. Distantly it felt a pair of powerful and strangely familiar presences hundreds of miles away. It was time to rouse her avatar and investigate this new development.

* * *

Sephiroth awoke in a strange room with Aeris by his side. He didn't recall falling asleep last night. The last thing that he recalled was… 

"My fight with that miserable feather-headed blond," he spoke out loud.

His words caused Aeris to stir in her sleep.

_I was just about to land a hard punch into that rat's gut when suddenly I lost consciousness_ Sephiroth continued his mental recollection of the previous night's events, _what happened to cause me to suddenly faint like that?_

_Yuffie cast a sleep spell on the two of you_, Aeris sleepily replied over their bond.

_I didn't mean to wake you love,_ Sephiroth apologized.

_No matter,_ Aeris answered, _but I learned the oddest thing about this planet last night. Apparently it has a lot of low-level matera lying around for anyone to pick up and use._

_That is indeed strange,_ Sephiroth commented, _do explain._

In short sentences Aeris told Sephiroth what had happened last night and all she had learned about this planet's materia that its Lifestream produced.

_I can only guess that it has many more souls and conflicting powers in its Lifestream if the planet needs so many materia orbs other than the Black and White materia's, _Aeris concluded.

_I wouldn't know since it appears that I cannot communicate with this planet,_ Sephiroth observed.

_Neither can I,_ Aeris added, _seems like we lost our ability to talk with a planet when I lost my Cetran form when we summoned Holy so long ago._

"Hmmm," Sephiroth murmured.

"I guess that it really doesn't matter anyway," Aeris continued, "neither of us are what we were born as anymore. There is no need to worry about anyone's voices in out heads except each others."

"Thank the stars for small miracles," Sephiroth sighed as he leaned back.

"Get up you slugabed!" Aeris told him, emphasizing her words with a swift poke to his ribs, "the others are undoubtedly up by now and I don't want to miss breakfast because you decide to be lazy."

Sephiroth wordlessly grumbled, but complied with her wishes. Quickly he scrambled to his feet as he saw Aeris striding out of the room. Seconds later he caught up with her and looped his arm into hers. They walked like that together till they reached the dinning area. What greeted them was a scene that they hadn't witnessed since their first breakfast at Cosmo Canyon. Yuffie once again had breakfast duty along with a silently suffering Vincent.

"Hey silvertop heads up!" Yuffie hollered.

Sephiroth scowled at the nickname but ducked nonetheless. A waffle went sailing overhead. It hit the wall behind him with a loud _smack!_

"If anything gets in my hair, I will have to kill someone," Sephiroth growled under his breath.

Aeris giggled as she heard Sephiroth's muttered statement.

"So Ris, Sephy, what do you want?" Yuffie yelled above the other conversations.

Aeris broke out into loud laughter at the look at Sephiroth's face at the use of "Sephy" in reference to him.

"Two waffles with whipped cream and strawberries on them and a cup of orange juice," Aeris spoke between her laughter, "just put them on a plate on the counter. I don't want my food to go aerial."

"Scrambled eggs, three pieces of French toast and a cup of tea," Sephiroth ordered tightly.

"Coming right up!" Yuffie yelled.

A few minutes later two plates plopped onto the counter with their requests. The two made their way through the aerial maze of flying food and condiments to pick up their food and make their way to their table off to the side.

Nanaki was discussing something with Cait Sith while Cid and Barret were trading outrageous stories. Tifa and Cloud were staring into each other's eyes, having no attention for anyone other than their fiancé. Poor Vincent was looking absolutely miserable next to the energetic teen as she threw another waffle through the air. Yuffie was oblivious to Vincent's plight as she merrily continued filling out the orders of the other members of AVALANCHE.

About an hour later, breakfast was finished and the dishes were being washed by Yuffie and Vincent. The different conversations around the room slowly died down and eventually fell silent as the ninja and the gunman came over to join the others.

"So what do we do about this new threat?" Tifa spoke up, breaking the ice.

"First, we must know what we are facing," Cloud replied.

"I think that we have a good idea of the enemy we are facing," Vincent observed.

"All of us have fought against this thing in one form of another at some point in our lives," Aeris mentioned.

"Huh?" Yuffie added.

"While they might not have been the same creature," Sephiroth clarified, "both of our groups have faced something called Jenova during our lifetimes."

"Do you think that they were the same being?" Nanaki asked.

"No clue," Sephiroth answered, "but I wouldn't be surprised."

"I somehow doubt it," Cloud stated.

"He's right," Aeris affirmed, "I don't think that the two Jenovas were the same being. Perhaps each was an offshoot of a greater organism or race that existed sometime in the distant past, long before even Sephiroth and I were born."

"Well that's assuring," Yuffie remarked.

"Be quiet brat," Barret commanded.

"Shove it you geezer," Yuffie shot back.

"Children, no need to bicker," Cait Sith chided.

Both Barret and Yuffie sent him death glares.

"Getting back on the $#-ing topic," Cid spoke, "what should we do about the blue-skinned alien b$? We got her before, it should be a piece of cake this time around."

"Don't underestimate Jenova's tricks," Sephiroth reminded him, "I personally know how dirty that thing fights to get what it wants."

"Well one thing that we won't have to worry about is Jenova taking over either Sephiroth's or my body," Aeris stated, "our mental and spiritual make up prevents other presences from invading our minds now that we have no ties to anything in the universe except to each other."

"That's a damn good thing to have," Cid remarked.

"But it could make for a lonely existence," Tifa commented.

"We have each other," Sephiroth stated, "we need nothing else."

Cloud was about to make another comment but was interrupted by a commotion in the corridor outside the dinning area. Quickly Nanaki got up and left to investigate it. Everyone just sat in silence while the red beast was gone.

Less than a minute later, he came rushing back, his claws scraping on the floor in his haste. Anything someone might have said was prevented by the beast's panicked announcement.

"We are under attack! A monster outside is targeting Cosmo Canyon!" Nanaki practically roared.

Everyone leapt to their feet, grabbed their weapons and materia and rushed outside. The sight that met them made their blood freeze in their veins. Floating up in the sky in a mockery of a real dragon was a creature the two huge purple-blue leathery wings, two front legs that ended in spear points and mass of tentacles coming out where the tail and hind feet should be.

"What the &( &$& &()$ is that?!" Cid yelled as Yuffie threw her Conformer at the thing.

The weapon sliced clean through the membrane of one of the wings, only to close up right before their eyes. The thing let out a rasping roar and the others sprang into action. Sephiroth and Aeris took to the air and started flying around the thing, just out of reach. The silver-haired man kept of clenching his hands, wishing that he had the familiar weight of Masamune in his grip right now. Aeris, still slightly unused to her wings had several close calls where the monster almost whacked her with one of its flailing limbs.

A bolt of lightning shot past Sephiroth, almost singing his left wing, and hit the monster right in the middle of its mouth. It let out a shriek of pain and went barreling past Sephiroth towards Tifa who had cast the spell. In its charge, one of its wings clipped Sephiroth, sending him spiraling downwards. He recovered his balance a few feet above the ground and rapidly regained altitude.

Suddenly an out of place wind starting whipping past Sephiroth. Anger flooded into him across his link from Aeris. He glanced her way. Her wings were beating furiously and her clenched fists were trembling. Whips of silver energy were beating around her fists, as if Aeris' anger had taken physical form.

Aeris let out a screech of incoherent rage and dived towards the thing. A few meters before she would have crashed into the monster, her wings flared out and she made a slashing motion with both hands. Silver whips of energy lashed from her hands and cracked through the air before making deep slashes into the exposed back of the monster.

The thing let out an enrage scream. Now all of its attention was focused on Aeris. It furiously beat it wings and made a charge at her, its spear-like arms slashing at Aeris as it came in for the kill.

Now it was Sephiroth's turn to anger. He could feel a burning sensation filling his body and concentrate into his hands. Without thinking, he lobbied a series of green balls of energy at the thing, creating several scorch marks on its wings. The monster whipped around to face Sephiroth and let out a roar. Aeris took the opportunity to hit it with her energy whips again. The thing whipped around again to face Aeris. Sephiroth fired off more energy balls.

By attacking the monster from opposite sides, it split its attention and was unable to make an attack without the other hitting it. The others soon caught on and spells were flying through the air like a shower of arrows. The things rage kept on growing as it started thrashing about wildly. It was apparent that they were winning. The battle should be over in a mater of moments.

Sure enough with one last combined lightning/poison attack from Tifa and Barret, the thing gave one last screech and died. No one expected what happened next. As Sephiroth and Aeris were coming in for a landing, the thing suddenly exploded. The blast sent Sephiroth crashing to the ground and blew Aeris out of sight. The explosion also had the nasty side effect of knocking everyone unconscious as well, including Sephiroth.

* * *

Aeris came to bruised and aching all over. The last thing she could remember was the monster finally dying and then a big explosion. Groaning, she rolled over and sat up. 

"This just isn't my day," Aeris moaned.

Silence answered her.

"Sephiroth?" she called out, "where are you?"

No answer.

"Sephiroth! Sephiroth! Where are you?!" she yelled.

A sudden pain in her middle made her double over. Black spots danced before her eyes and she gasped for breath. She hurt like hell. It felt like a baseball bat had been slammed into her stomach.

Aeris collapsed to the ground as the pain got worse. She was moaning and writhing in pain as a shadow fell over her. Blinking away her tears, she tried to make out who was standing above her. Sunlight glinted off silver hair. Relief washed through her.

"There you are Sephiroth," Aeris sighed.

Dark chuckling answered her. Something felt seriously wrong. Aeris took another look at the figure. This man had the same hair and stature as Sephiroth, hell he even had his face! But what grabbed her attention was the single black wing that stuck out from his back. A single black wing, not a pair of white ones.

_Oh gods,_ Aeris thought, _this can't be happening! How can there be two Sephiroths?_

"Looks like Mother was right," the Sephiroth clone spoke, "somehow the little Cetra has returned to life. With a shiny new pair of wings to boot."

Aeris jerked her head up, only top let out a cry of pain and collapse back onto the hard earth. The dark imitation of her soulbonded, just studied her as she fought off the pain. The fortune that Cait Sith had done for Sephiroth flashed into her mind.

"You're his shadow," Aeris rasped.

"Shadow little Cetra? I think not," the dark copy mocked.

"What do you want?" Aeris demanded.

"I've just come here to collect something that Mother wants," he informed her.

Too late did Aeris notice the glowing green orb in the black-winged clone's hand. She could feel the power of the materia reach out towards her.

"No!" she croaked in fear.

"Sleep, Cetra," the shadow commanded with an evil chuckle.

Darkness consumed her mind.

* * *

Sephiroth's head shot up in alarm. He could feel that something had happened to Aeris. Their link for the first time ever had been muffled. He could not feel anything from her except that she was still alive. 

"No," he denied.

"What's wrong?" Nanaki asked.

"Something has taken Aeris," Sephiroth spoke in a horrified voice.

"What?!" Cloud roared.

"She's gone," Sephiroth replied, sinking to his feet in shock.

The others gathered around him as the world started to spin.

"My shadow has stolen my heart," he spoke before passing out.

* * *

The evil cliffy strikes! 

This marks the real start of the action and rapid plot progression in this story. Hope that I didn't keep my readers waiting too long to get here. Stay tuned for the next chapter as things go from bad to worse and Sephiroth finds himself in a situation that he can't escape from.

I know that many of you probably aren't too happy with how this chapter ended. But don't worry, Aeris will not play damsel in distress for very long. She'll fight back soon enough, next chapter even.

A thousand thanks to my BETA Tishannia. Thanks for catching all those typos!

Don't expect the next update to be up for about two weeks. I have midterms and internship applications breathing down my neck.

Give me a review and tell me what you think, for reviews are the fuel of fan fiction writers and the more I get, the sooner the next update will come.

Turtlerad17 out!


	6. Unfolding Drama, Lurking Horror

Pawns of Prophecy

By turtlerad17

Disclaimer: I don't own FF7.

* * *

Chapter Five: Unfolding Drama, Lurking Horror

Sephiroth was not taking Aeris' abduction very well. This had been the first time ever since he had fallen in love with her that they had been separated for more than a few hours. When he wasn't off in some corner sullenly brooding he was flying around in the sky, trying to improve his flight abilities in an effort to distract himself. The fact that no one knew who or what had taken Aeris or for what reason didn't help the sliver-haired man's violently changing moods at all.

Already the members of AVALANCHE had to break up three fights that Sephiroth had started. The winged man's fuse was non-existent and he went off at the slightest provocation. Each time he got into a fight they had to physically separate him from the other person, having to resort to using Sleepel spells to subdue him.

It was odd that a warrior of his caliber who wielded his strange brand of magic as effectively as any metal weapon, as evidenced by the battle with the dragon-monster thing, had the magical resistance of a wet tissue. Yuffie and Tifa had taken it upon themselves to try and bolster his non-existent magical defenses. Each morning they got up an hour before dawn and had dragged Sephiroth, grouchy and snappish, from his restless sleep to drill him in magical combat, hurtling every single spell that they had materia for at him that he tried to evade, block or counter-attack.

His speed and control of his trajectory in flight was being honed to perfection, but the girls told him that he had to actually start blocking or attacking them as they shot their spells at him. The latter he was already proficient in, having grown up fighting for survival on his home world. It was the former that they were having problems with.

The most elementary spells still managed to cause serious damage to the sliver-haired man, and the more intermediate spells were enough to knock him out in one hit. After seeing the effect that an Ice 2 spell had on him, Tifa and Yuffie refrained from using anything stronger. His progress at building up his magical defenses was going painstakingly slow and both Sephiroth and the girls were getting fed-up and irritable.

It was five days after Aeris' abduction and three fights that Sephiroth had started later when Cloud finally snapped. He roared at Cid, telling him to fire up the Highwind's engines. The blond leader was fed up with Sephiroth's sulking and temper tantrums. He knew that while Yuffie and Tifa had meant well, they just weren't using the right methods to diffuse Sephiroth's restless temper. Sephiroth was no mage, he was a warrior and he had been too long without a weapon in his hands.

Cloud had literally dragged the unconscious form of Sephiroth onto the Highwind and had locked him in the sturdiest, most reinforced storage room that the airship had. Then Cloud made Cid take off with just the three of them. An hour later Sephiroth had woken up and was apparently very unhappy with his current surroundings, if the small explosions, banging and angry yelling was any indication.

Eventually Sephiroth had settled down when he realized that he wasn't going to be able to break out of his confinement and instead leaned against the back wall, plotting various messy and painful deaths for the people who had locked him in there. It was over six hours later when Sephiroth heard approaching footsteps outside of his make-shift prison. The sound of the lock being released sent him shooting to his feet, flickering green energy flaring around his clenched fists. The door was jerked open but he was never given the chance to attack.

The moment the door was opened, Cloud's broadsword was shoved in his face, a green orb in its hilt glowing with a spell that was ready to be activated at any moment.

"Make any sudden moves and I will be sending you back into dreamland," Cloud's icy voice informed.

Sephiroth let the energy gathered around his fists die away. Cloud withdrew his sword but the materia was still glowing in case the silver-haired man tried anything.

"Get moving," Cloud barked as he made a motion to go in front, "I haven't dragged your stinking carcass halfway across the world just to let you stew in this closet."

Sephiroth shot Cloud a death glare, but complied anyway. The blond swordsman fell into step behind Sephiroth and swiftly they were standing on the outside deck of the Highwind. Sephiroth took a moment to scan his new surroundings. Tall, jagged peaks surrounded the airship on all sides as they rested in a deep valley filled with greenery. At the base of a funny looking cliff a small city was nestled. It had the strangest architecture he had ever seen.

A heavy cloth was thrown at his head. Sephiroth unfolded it and saw that it was a long, black cloak that when worn would fall to his feet.

"The people here have less than fond memories of the person who bears your image," Cloud curtly told him, "I want you to wear that to avoid any trouble."

"And just exactly where are we?" Sephiroth frostily inquired as he threw the cloak over his shoulders and tightly withdrawn wing.

"Wutai," was the blond's clipped answer.

"Ah, I see," Sephiroth replied, remembering the account of Shinra's war against Wutai before his counterpart on this planet went crazy. Swiftly he pulled the hood up and cast his all too recognizable hair and eyes into shadow.

Cloud had started climbing down the rope ladder and Sephiroth followed, disliking having to use such mundane methods of travel when he had could simply glide down. He refrained from such revealing actions; he was supposed to be hiding his identity after all.

A deep frown settled onto Sephiroth's face as he followed Cloud into the capital of Yuffie's nation. They entered a shop that was halfway down the main road. Sephiroth took a moment to see what type of store they had entered.

Swords, daggers, throwing stars, long bows and weapons of almost every imaginable type filled his vision. The now familiar ache of not having Masamune at his disposal suddenly overcame him as he drew to a rack displaying katanas for sale. Reverently Sephiroth ran his fingers along the sheath of one of the katanas. In a graceful movement, Sephiroth drew the katana he had been fingering and slashed it in an upward arc.

Sephiroth frowned, the blade was a well made piece of work but there was just something that was missing. Quickly he sheathed it and drew another. He encountered the same problem. There was something unfamiliar at the way the katana's weight resting in his hold. Cloud let out a low chuckle. He obviously knew what was wrong.

"Do you happen to have any katanas that are longer than the ones you have on display?" Cloud asked the weapon seller, "my companion is used to a blade with a longer reach."

The weapon seller nodded and went behind a curtain into the back room. A bit of shuffling was heard, before he came back out holding a much longer katana in his trembling hands.

"Do you happen to have anything longer?" Cloud asked with a frown.

"The only sword that was longer than this model was made by the legendary Hiroshi-sama," the man answered, "it was his masterpiece, but it became a cursed blade the moment it fell into the white-haired demon's hands. The cursed blade disappeared two years ago with the downfall of its evil master and is best left forgotten."

"What you have will be fine," Sephiroth cut in, "that is if I find it to be of proper quality."

"I can assure you sir that all my blades are of the highest quality," the shop-keep retorted, insulted.

"That has yet to be seen," Sephiroth replied as he picked up the blade from where the weapon dealer had placed in on the counter.

Sephiroth held the sword as if it was sheathed at his belt and drew it with a flourish. With skilled movements, he executed a few simple attacks that he knew. Cloud's intuition had been right on the mark it seemed, for while this katana was about a foot shorter than his Masamune, it felt much more comfortable in his grip.

"I'll take it," Sephiroth announced.

Immediately the weapon seller gave a price, one that was much higher than the sword's actual worth judging by the look on Cloud's face as he shot back a much lower offer. Soon the two men were engaged in a fierce bout of bartering. Eventually they settled on a price that both would accept and Cloud and Sephiroth left the shop, brand new sword in hand, with a much lighter purse.

Once they were about a mile out of town, Cloud unsheathed his own massive broadsword and turned around to face Sephiroth.

"Want to fight?" Cloud asked.

Sephiroth threw off the stifling cloak and drew his sword in answer. The clang of blade meeting blade echoed across the valley as the two warriors dueled.

* * *

Sweaty and tired after their fight, Cloud finally climbed onto the deck of the Highwind as Sephiroth landed a few feet away. They were greeted by a pacing Cid.

"Where the &&$ing hell have you been?!" the chain-smoking pilot roared, "we got a call from the others fifteen minutes ago that there has been another attack of Cosmo Canyon. Another monster that looked like one of Hojo's failed experiments from the way they described it."

Not giving Cloud any time to ask about any more details, Cid rushed off and the engines shook to life and the Highwind took off in a flurry of winds. The flight back to Cosmo Canyon was spent in tense silence, Cloud joining Cid in the main deck while Sephiroth retreated to the dinning area.

Cosmo Canyon had just come into sight when Cloud got a frantic call that they were fighting off yet another monster. Cid gunned it at that news and they landed outside the canyon less than five minutes later. Sephiroth at that point had been standing on the outer deck and had not received the news about the attack in progress. Instead he saw something that made him leap into flight while the Highwind was still moving.

Sephiroth tumbled about in the air for a few seconds before gaining his balance and streaking off towards the two figures in the sky he had seen from the outer deck. He arrived at the rustic settlement itself just as the others had managed to bring down the flying horror that they had been engaged in a fierce battle with.

Sephiroth's attention was not on the monster the others were making short work of. Instead his gaze was fastened on the pair of winged beings that had been watching the battle. One of them was his mirror image except he was short one wing and the one his shadow did possess was totally black. The lack of a wing didn't seem to hamper his double's flight at the least, but his horrorified gaze slipped from his mirror image and fastened on the figure right next to him.

It was Aeris. But she was different. The same blankness that he could feel from her across their bond was reflected in her dull eyes. It looked like she was in a trance.

_Or being controlled_, a part of Sephiroth mind whispered.

"What the hell did you do to Aeris?" Sephiroth roared at his double.

"Ah, I was wondering when my other self would show up," the double answered, "it only took two more attacks from Mother's little pets to draw you out."

Sephiroth growled and made to draw his sword.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," his shadow threatened, not looking at him, "you never know what would happen to your precious little Ancient if you did."

"Let her go or else," Sephiroth snarled.

"Or what my mirror image? You aren't in a position to do anything but listen," the other man replied, "funny thing about that though. I was shocked to learn that the little Cetra had somehow managed to come back to life, and accompanying her was a person bearing my image. Mother was very curious about this and sent a monster to distract the puppet's friends while I was to bring one of you to her."

The other silver-haired man paused as he turned to look Sephiroth straight in the eye.

"Imagine our surprise to learn that this female was in fact not the one who I had killed back at the Lost City," the shadow continued, "but was in fact a much older being, hailing form a far away planet. I must say that the story that spilled from her lips was astounding. If what she said was true, that makes you, my otherself, a traitor. Imagine that."

"Don't speak of things you have no understanding of," Sephiroth snarled.

"But then Mother had a wonderful idea," the shadow taunted, "since we already had the female, why not use her to our benefit? We found out that she made a much better puppet than that failure. The girl's mind has impenetrable defenses, but her control of her body and abilities had pitifully few."

The shadow cackled.

"To think that all that it took to control her was a simple manipulate materia!" Sephiroth's shadow cruelly jeered, "I would wager that you also have her pathetic lack of magic defense. It would be a simple matter to take over your body and then we would have two willing puppets, not just one."

The fire in Sephiroth's eyes could have roasted the double alive.

"But what fun would be in that?" the shadow mocked, "it is much more fun to watch you suffer and futilely try to fight back. Besides, an ally of ours who we owe a debt has an interest in you. It would hardly be fitting to take both of you after they so kindly revived us."

Sephiroth couldn't stop himself this time. With a roar, he drew his sword and flew straight at the mirror image. The shadow just hovered there with a smirk as Aeris sent an energy whip hurling at Sephiroth. He swiftly banked, just avoiding the attack. He couldn't believe the nerve of the man! To force Aeris attack him instead of engaging in combat with Sephiroth himself. It just added another reason to the rapidly growing list of why he wanted to kill his shadow.

Unfortunately, the attack from Aeris had just been a diversion. By the time Sephiroth recovered his wits, the pair were rapidly flying away, almost out of sight. Sephiroth sheathed his sword and went after them, ignoring the calls below for him to stop. His rage was clouding his judgment and the only thing he felt was the need to cause blood to rain down from the sky as he murdered his shadow.

In his blind rage, Sephiroth never saw the smirk that danced across the other silver-haired man's face, nor the shadows that slipped behind Sephiroth as he raced after the double. He never saw the attack that came behind from a smaller version of the first monster that had attacked Cosmo Canyon. The blow had sent him spiraling out of control and Sephiroth just barely missed crashing into a cliff wall.

Another attack came from behind, but this time Sephiroth was able to avoid it. A huge green fireball erupted from his hands that incinerated the monster, but another came in its place. Soon, due to the sheer numbers of monsters attacking him, he was forced to land. The moment he did though, they abruptly changed tactics, attacking him all at once, not allowing him to focus on any single monster.

Their attacks strangely enough weren't aiming to kill him, just to distract and disarm him. And while they did manage to wrest his sword out of his grasp, his magic was another matter. Sephiroth wasn't aiming for any specific target now; he just shot out green fireballs at random directions.

Sephiroth was so caught up in the battle that he didn't see the figure emerge from one of the cracks in the canyon wall. If he had taken a moment to glance to his left, he would have seen the giddy gleam in the figures eyes as the green materia glowed in their hand. Of course Sephiroth never got the chance to do so as suddenly he was swallowed by a familiar magic-induced darkness.

* * *

Steady beeping and the occasional metallic clicking brought Sephiroth back to consciousness. He was surrounded by strange machines that had small blinking lights and had the occasional image displayed on a screen. The soft beeping and metallic clicking was coming from these machines and Sephiroth was curious as to what their purpose was.

He tried to sit up only to discover that he was strapped down to the cold steel table he was lying on. Cold, titanium shackles were locked about his wrists and ankles and there was another one around his neck. Strong leather belts binded him further to the table. He had ones over his elbows, one across his naked chest and two sets kept his legs totally immobile, one above his knees and one set below to match. There was even one strapped across his forehead.

His wings, too, were held immobile by more of the leather straps.

The combination of the leather belts and the titanium shackles kept his entire body immobile except for his eyes. He tried to summon his strange magic only to find it blocked. Fear crept into his mind. He was totally helpless and he never took well to being put in that position. Sephiroth panicked and fought against his restraints. A scream was building up in his throat as his struggles grew stronger.

A slight giggling aborted the scream just as it was about to escape from his throat. There was something deranged about person's giggling that sent shivers up the back of his spine.

"What do you want? Who the hell are you?! " Sephiroth barked, trying to fight off his fear.

"Sephiroth, you wound me," the figure giggled, "Surely you would recognize your own father."

"I don't have a father, he was killed years ago, long before you even existed," Sephiroth shot back.

"Tsk, tsk. Don't take that tone with me my boy," the figure lectured, "little boys that are bad need to be punished."

"Who the hell do you think you are, you deranged psychopath?" Sephiroth roared.

"Pot calling the kettle black," the man mocked, "I think that I need to reteach you your manners my son."

The man stepped into the soft glow from the machines. He wore black pants covered with dried mud and wore a grey, stained shirt that hung off his malnourished frame. A white lab coat covered in all sorts of dried substances that Sephiroth didn't want to think about covered the rest of his clothes. The man had a narrow, pointed face that reminded Sephiroth of a rat and he had disturbing yellow eyes that seemed to dissect things without touching them. The man's long, greasy hair was pulled back into a low hanging ponytail.

Suddenly he knew the name of this clearly unbalanced man. Hojo, this planet's local mad scientist. Sephiroth's blood ran cold. He had heard stories from Cloud what others had suffered under this madman. Who knows what was in store for him?

Hojo pulled out a syringe with a long, sharp needle from his lab coat. It was filled with sickly blue liquid that was glowing faintly.

"Now be a good little son and accept you punishment," Hojo crooned as he stuck the needle into a vein in Sephiroth's left arm.

Hojo injected the contents of the needle into Sephiroth's body. Pain exploded across his body. It felt like that all his nerves were on fire. Thankfully he didn't have to feel it for long for darkness crashed over his mind shortly thereafter.

* * *

Now THAT is what I call a nasty cliffy. I know that I will probably receive some death threats for this one. Oh yes, don't worry, things only get worse from here. This chapter marks the half-way point of this story, I should be wrapping it up in about 4 or 5 more chappies. I can honestly say this: thank god for my Beta Tishannia and spell-check. They do wonders for the grammar of this story.

Give me a review and tell me what you think, for reviews are the fuel of fan fiction writers and the more I get, the sooner the next update will come.

Turtlerad17 out!


	7. Breaking Point

Pawns of Prophecy

By turtlerad17

Disclaimer: I don't own FF7.

Note: this chappie is from many different POVs. _Italics_ is from Sephiroth's POV, **_Bold Italics_** is from Aeris' POV and regular text is for normal narration.

* * *

Chapter 6- Breaking Point

**_She could not see. She could not hear or smell, taste or feel anything at all. Aeris was surrounded on all sides by a mind numbing grey fog. She was totally isolated from the outside world, trapped in this grey void that surrounded her consciousness. The grey fog even went so far that it cut off her connection with her other half. That alone was enough to spend her into spasms of uncontrollable terror, but being trapped in this prison within her own body, with no contact from the outside world had made her mind shut down. _**

**_For what could have been just hours or even years, Aeris was inactive, surrounded by the darkness of her unconscious mind, not thinking, not feeling, or even dreaming. Then, something started tugging at the corner of her mind. She had been dragged out of the comatose like state, against her will. _**

**_For what point was there to be awake, aware if the only thing that she would see was the same motionless, unchanging colorless fog that was her prison? Aeris didn't want to become aware once again, for in awareness, consciousness, she was plagued by loneliness that slowly chipped away at her spirit and sanity._**

**_But the presence tugging at her consciousness was persistent and against her will, Aeris opened her mind's eyes and was greeted by the same soul wearying fog. She floated motionless in her semi-aware state for what could have been seconds or days, but the passage of time was muddled and hard to determine in this grey void, just like all other things that existed here. _**

**_Then, a faint stirring in the fog became apparent to Aeris. She felt just the faintest sensation of something, it was hard to tell exactly what it was, brush up against her mind. For a brief moment Aeris felt hope flare up in her. _**

**Perhaps it is my other half trying to contact me!_ Aeris thought. _**

**_But no, the feeling was not the familiar warm and comforting emerald touch that she was used to. All that the former Cetra could make out of the feeling was a wisp of silver with an even fainter tint of pink accompanying it. The silver she instinctively knew belonged to her, but the pink Aeris had no idea of. It seemed oddly familiar though, but she couldn't place it._**

**_Then, like everything that existed in the grey void, the presence faded. Aeris could feel her mind slipping back into the darkness. She put up no fight against it. Being unaware, unfeeling was so much better than being awake and aware and feeling parts of herself, her thoughts, her will, her memories, fading away, becoming like the grey fog that surrounded her. _**

**_No it was far better to be unthinking, unfeeling, unaware as she sunk farther into the darkness. Better to sleep without thoughts emotions or dreams than to slowly slip into insanity as her very mind and soul faded to nothing when she was awake and aware floating in that grey void. It was far better this way…

* * *

_**

_Burning, writhing, tearing, every nerve screaming in pain. Agony, the pain ripping him apart all across his body. The blood pounding in his head, each pulse feeling like a sledge hammer slamming into his brain. He couldn't think, couldn't move. The pain consumed everything. _

_What was happening? Where am I? Who am I? _

_Sea green eyes crack open, displaying pupils contracted to mere pinpricks because of the pain. The sight of tubes sticking out of his neck greets him. Off to his right beyond his range of vision he can hear muttering. _

_"No, no. This can't be right. The machine must have malfunctioned. These readings can't possibly be right. I'll have to run the test again."_

_A beep sounds off to his left. He can hear the person who was muttering shuffle over to where the beep came from. A dirty and stained white lab coat briefly flicks into his range of vision as the person walks behind him. _

_He tries to speak, but his mouth and throat are so very, very dry. The only sound he can manage is a low croak and even just the effort at making that pitiful sound causes spots to dance in front of his eyes and sharp pinpricks of pain to lance out across his head. _

_The sound of something ripping reaches his ears. A dissatisfied grunt is heard. More angry and frustrated muttering is heard. _

_He opens his mouth to try and speak again. His dried and chapped lips crack and he can feel the blood sluggishly dribbling down his chin and a bit gets into his mouth. Reflexively he swallows, the need for moisture overcoming the coppery tang of the blood. _

_Swallowing was a mistake, his throat feels like it on fire. He can't help it, he hoarsely cries out._

_"So you are awake, hmm? Looks like that last injection wasn't strong enough."_

_The man in the lab coat shuffled over to a nearby table. The scientist picked up an opaque bottle, hiding the contents that it contained. A syringe was pulled out of the lab coat and the scientist jabbed the sharp needle through the rubber lid of the bottle. With steady hands the plunger was pulled up, and the syringe slowly was filled with a glowing green liquid. The bottle was then placed back on the table and the figure in the lab coat walked over to him._

_The tip of the needle glinted evilly in the dim light that came from overhead. His body started shaking uncontrollably in his restraints at the sight of the needle. Terror was eating away at his mind, he knew that what the syringe contained would only bring more pain. _

_He whimpered, despite his parched mouth._

_The figure that loomed above him only giggled in a disturbing manner as he jabbed the needle into his neck and injected the contents of the needle into his blood system. The figure strapped to the screamed as the contents of the needle was carried to all the parts of his body in a wave of molten fire.

* * *

_

Cloud snapped his PHS closed and cursed loudly.

"So I take it that there is no sign of either of them?" Tifa asked.

"No," Cloud growled, "ever since that fool took off from the upper deck chasing after something no one has seen even a single feather from one of his wings."

"This isn't good," Tifa murmured.

"Tell me something that I don't know!" Cloud snapped.

A look of pain flashed into Tifa's eyes. Involuntarily the martial artist took two steps away from the furious and frustrated spiky haired blond. Cloud mentally cursed himself. The last thing that he should have done was scare her. Things were bad enough as it was without causing disharmony in the group.

First that dragon reject monster had attacked Cosmo Canyon and Aeris had been kidnapped. Then to top it off, just after Cloud, Sephiroth and Cid had got back to the others who were fighting off the third such monster, that featherbrained idiot had jumped off the side of the Highwind and had vanished as well. The monster attacks were coming two or three times a day and they weren't just limited to Cosmo Canyon.

The attacks were occurring at different areas all over the globe and AVALANCHE was spreading itself thin and running itself ragged trying to keep the settlements that were being attacked safe. At the current moment, Yuffie and Vincent were off fighting one of the Hellspawn, as they had taken to referring the monsters, in Mideel while Barret, Cait Sith and Nanaki were rescuing people trapped under the rubble of the Hellspawn that they had killed an hour earlier in Junion.

Cloud and Tifa were currently en route to Costa del Sol hoping to cut off a particularly huge Hellspawn that a ship's radar had found that was heading straight towards the resort town. The Highwind, except for short refueling stops had been constantly in flight the last thirty-six hours and Cid looked dead on his feet from shuttling the members of AVALANCHE across the globe.

-_Boogey at ten o'clock!- _Cid's voice crackled across the speaker system

Cloud cursed again. Tifa pulled on her fighting gloves and cracked her knuckles. Both of them were filled with the tension from waiting and were rearing for a good fight to burn it all away. A loud screech echoed across the open ocean. Cloud looked out the window and groaned.

"Oh god," Tifa moaned when she too saw that the current Hellspawn was about three times as huge and deadly looking as the previous one had been.

-_Okay you f&$ers get ready to disembark cause I'm landing this baby!-_ Cid announced.

"Ready?" Cloud grimly asked Tifa.

"Have been for hours," Tifa responded.

* * *

**_The presence was tugging at her mind again, with more force than last time. Aeris fought it, she didn't want to leave the darkness. Doing so would mean confronting that terrorifying grey fog that was sucking everything out of her. The tugging became more insistent. With a mental groan she finally surrendered and opened her mind's eye again. _**

**_Right away she could feel a difference. The fog looked thinner in some areas and silver light leaked through weakly in such places. A flickering pale pink light was making its way towards her. A part of Aeris wanted to shrink back from the approaching presence, fearing what its presence in the grey void could mean. _**

**_The light seemed to be fighting against something as it struggled closer to her. The grey fog was pressing on the waning pink light, trying to snuff it out and prevent it from reaching its prisoner. _**

_**Suddenly Aeris wanted with all her being wanted to be able to touch that pink light. But her sudden desire was a moment too late as the light finally flickered out and the presence that had been tugging at her mind vanished. A part of Aeris wailed out in despair.**_

**_A new strength flowed into her and filled her with determination. The need to fight against the grey fog filled her. No longer did she want to retreat into the darkness, no longer did she want to passively let the grey void leech away her memories and strength. _**

_**The darkness of oblivion whispered at the back of her mind. She ignored it for the first time as she started to form a barrier between herself and the grey void.

* * *

**_

Barret, Nanaki and Cait Sith climbed up the ladder to join Cloud, Tifa and Cid aboard the airship. All three of them sported nasty wounds and only had been able to snatch a few minutes to use the single cure materia that they had before they started pulling the survivors out of the wreckage caused by the Hellspawn that had attacked Junion. A good fifth of the fortress had been decimated during the battle and at least a dozen people had died, with many more wounded.

"Damn," Barret wheezed as he finally stepped onto the outer deck of the Highwind, "that was one helluva tough fight."

"I was uncomfortably reminded of the aftermath of the earthquake that hit Midgar weeks ago when we were pulling bodies out of the wreckage," Nanaki quietly commented.

"First it was those damn Shin-ra bastards, then that madman who wanted to destroy the planet and now it is those freaky Hellspawn that are attacking human settlements all across the globe," Barret growled, slamming his hand into the wall with enough force to leave a dent, "what is it about this planet that makes people and monsters want to drain the life outta it or blast it to smithereens? All I want is to be able to provide a safe world for Marlene to grow up in. Is that too fing much to ask?!!"

"No, no it's not," Cait Sith murmured in a most uncharacteristic tone.

"&! Now even the damn robot cat is feeling depressed!" Barret groaned, "if even Reeve's toy is feeling down, then things are really hopeless."

"Hey!" Cait Sith yelled indignant.

Nanaki wearily chuckled.

"We should go meet the others," he advised.

Barret grunted and stomped off into the interior of the ship. Cait Sith seemed to have gotten back of its normal enthusiasm as the white overstuffed moogle that it rode followed Barret with a slight bounce in its step. Nanaki sighed and went inside as well. Cloud wouldn't be very happy with the news that they had to tell him.

* * *

_Grandfather please help the others from losing all hope,_ the red beast thought as it cast a last glance back at Junion, _this constant fighting wears down on the heart and AVALANCHE is the only thing preventing the Hellspawn from destroying this world. We cannot afford to loose heart now, the very planet's survival depends on it.

* * *

_

_**Aeris had known that she had lost some of her memories to the grey fog that she was trapped in. The slow leeching away of her strength and memory stopped as she focused on building the barrier between her and the void. She had painstakingly gathered up the scattered remnants of her willpower and inner strength as she forced the fog away from her and poured strength into the barrier. **_

_**Her spirit was aching and tired but she had finally done it. A silver shimmering veil blocked the grey fog from her sight and prevented it from leeching any more of her energy away from her. The instant it went up, she could feel an immediate difference. For the first time since she had first imprisoned into the grey fog that she could think clearly. **_

**_Now with her mind clear of the numbing effects of the grey void, Aeris was finally able to take stock of her position. The number of holes in her memory had shocked her. Aeris had known that they grey fog had stolen some of her memories, but she hadn't thought that it had taken so many. _**

**_Now she had a new objective to fulfill, reclaiming the memories that had been stolen from her. Aeris noticed that memories of one type in particular were missing. Almost all of the memories concerning her other half, whose name she couldn't recall, were gone. _**

**Since the memories concerning my other half are the ones that I am missing the most, those are the ones that I should concentrate on retrieving the most, _Aeris decided._**

_**But just deciding to retrieve the memories wasn't enough to get them back as Aeris discovered. She actually had to create a small hole in the veil and extend a part of her essence outside the barrier to wrest those precious jewels back.**_

**_Of course by doing so allowed the grey fog to extend its mind numbing effects towards her once more, but since the majority of her consciousness was inside the barrier, the effect was much diminished. _**

**_The work at regaining her memories was draining and she lost another chunk of her energy for every memory that she retrieved. For all the effort she had put in, Aeris had retrieved few memories in return. It was frustrating, but Aeris couldn't let it distract her. _**

**Just one more,_ Aeris thought as she struggled with the fog, forcing it to relinquish a memory that it particularly stubborn in holding._**

**There!_ Aeris thought with triumph as she finally was able to pierce a hole in the grey fog's defenses._**

_**Swiftly she latched onto the now freed memory and drew it back behind the veil, closing the hole behind her as she withdrew her essence back inside the barrier. She knew this was a precious memory to her. **_

**_Aeris cradled the memory close to her for a second before drawing it into herself, allowing it to meld with her mind as it settled back in its rightful place._**

**_She remembered. It was the first time she had even made love with him. It had been so achingly sweet at times while at points they had joined in mindless, animalistic passion. Their first union had been wild and rough, tender and sweet, and everything in between. They had declared their love for each other first in words and then more thoroughly through their actions as two beings became one soul in a single night. _**

**_Their lovemaking was more than an expression of their feelings for the other, for by physically becoming one with the other they had cemented the bond between their souls that their home planet had created between the two of them. Now their souls were eternally joined, even death wasn't able to separate the two of them. They completed each other and they had finally found their other half. _**

**_As the precious, oh so treasured memory replayed itself in Aeris' mind she couldn't help but moan slightly as the passion and soul searing love that the memory contained ghosted over her, leaving a flushed heat in its wake. _**

**_Finally the memory reached it completion as the Aeris from memory fell asleep next to her soul mated lover. Aeris of the here and now felt so very, very tired as well. She had fought long and hard to get those few memories back, but it had been worth it. She now had a face and a name of her other half securely locked away in her mind and the feel of his essence was in her soul. _**

_**Aeris could feel the darkness rising once more to claim her. She didn't fight it, for this was not the darkness of oblivion, but the simple darkness of a sleeping mind that could rest and dream. **_

_**"Sephiroth," she sighed as she fell asleep.

* * *

**_

_"Sephiroth." _

_The very air around him seemed to whisper the word._

_Sephiroth? Who was Sephiroth? Why does the name seem so familiar?_

_The pain had lessened in the last few minutes and for once he could think clearly. The cool steel of the table he was laying on was a soothing balm to his still fevered body. _

_No wait, he was not simply laying on the table, he remembered as he realized that he couldn't move. _

_That's right, he recalled. He was strapped down to the table to prevent him from escaping. He frowned._

_Why was he restrained anyway? Where was he for that matter?_

_A soft beeping drifted over to his ears. _

_Beeping? He had no idea what could cause such a noise._

_An image flashed into his mind. Fear swept through him as he remembered the man in the white coat injecting him with a foreign substance. _

_Resolutely he turned his mind away from such thoughts. Instead he concentrated on that word, no name that had been whispered in the air._

_Sephiroth._

_Who or what was a Sephiroth?_

_The answer niggled at the back of his mind. He was sure that he had heard that name before. Many, many times if the sense of familiarity he felt at hearing it uttered was any proof. _

_A different image drifted up into his mind. It was a picture of him curled around a warm body as it, no she slept. _

_This is no image, he realized, it is one of my memories._

_Who was this girl that he felt such warmth (and even love?) from? _

_In his memory, the girl in his arms sighed and snuggled closer to him, her golden brown hair brushing against his face._

_"Sephiroth," the girl murmured in her sleep._

_That was where the memory ended._

_That it! he recalled. Now he remembered where he had heard the name before. The sleeping girl, no angel he decided, had called him that._

_But what was the name of his angel he wondered. This girl he knew was the most important thing in the entire universe to him. It was almost as if she was-_

_"My other half!" he exclaimed out loud._

_"Stupid boy," the voice of his torturer growled, "stop babbling such nonsense."_

_"Its hardly nonsense," he growled back, "one as depraved as you would never understand such a concept."_

_"Watch your tongue boy," the scientist snapped, slapping him hard across the face._

_"Go to hell you bastard," he shot back._

_"It won't be me going there today my son," the figure in the lab coat chuckled, "lets just hope this time that you give me some satisfying results. I'm running out of patience with you. Don't push your luck."_

_"I'm not and never have been your son," he spat._

_"Again with that delusion Sephiroth?" the scientist, Hojo he distantly remembered, giggled. _

_This time Sephiroth never saw Hojo pull the syringe full of the loathsome chemicals and other substances from the tattered and dirty lab coat. He only realized that the mad scientist had another one when the needle was jabbed into the same throbbing area of his neck and the contents of the syringe quickly injected into his blood stream. _

_Sephiroth's screams echoed across the lab as he writhed in pain in his restraints.

* * *

_

Yuffie couldn't believe that almost a week had passed since Sephiroth (the non-evil one with the big, pretty wings her mind added) had disappeared. She had hardly slept a wink during that entire time. When she and Vincent were not off killing the latest Hellspawn that had reared its ugly head, they were searching for the two winged people that had either been kidnapped, vanished or even killed. During the rest of the time the ninja was either attending meetings with the other members of AVALANCHE or trying to get some much needed sleep.

Of course the few hours of sleep that she managed to catch every night did nothing to replenish her sinking moral. Any time she did try to sleep, Yuffie spent over half of the time tossing and turning before eventually slipping into a light, restless sleep full of nightmares and bad memories, both new and old.

Yuffie was on running on sheer will power by now and was liable to collapse at any moment. Apparently the others noticed since Cloud had taken one look at her and ordered her to her bed. Yuffie was more than happy to slink away to her own room aboard the airship and gratefully collapsed on her bed, sleep instantly taking her.

"Things are not getting any better," Vincent commented as he watched Yuffie stumble out of the room, "we all need a good rest but the increasing number of Hellspawn attacks doesn't allow us that luxury."

"You don't look much better yourself," Cloud replied, taking in the ex-Turk's drawn face, drooping shoulders and limp hair, "and I'm willing to bet that I don't look any better either."

"Where's Cid?" Vincent asked, changing the subject.

"He collapsed three hours ago at the wheel and Tifa was barely able to prevent the Highwind from crashing into the ocean," Cloud answered, "currently he is making an impressive duet of snores with Barret in the room they share and Tifa thinks that he neither of them won't be awake for at least twelve hours."

"You should get some rest as well," Vincent advised.

"I have had more sleep than you," Cloud stated, "someone needs to be awake in case another call comes if another Hellspawn attacks."

Vincent had to agree with Cloud's statement.

"Now get some rest yourself," Cloud commanded, "and that's an order."

Vincent only raised an eyebrow but went in search of his own bed as well.

"Whew!" Cloud sighed as soon as the gunman had left, "I thought that I would have to drag him to his room and lock him in there to make him get some rest. Though he doesn't look it, that man is more stubborn than the rest of us combined."

"Vincent is driven to complete any task that he takes on," Tifa murmured from behind the blond swordsman, slipping her arms around his waist, "reminds me of you actually."

"True," Cloud wearily chuckled, "we do seem to have a lot in common."

"Like wrapping yourself in your shadows of the past that neither of you can quite let go?" Tifa suggested, "to the fact that both of you each has a persistent woman who loves you and won't stop at nothing to make the oblivious male notice her?"

"Huh?" Cloud intelligently asked.

"Figures that you wouldn't notice," Tifa snorted, "men, they are as observant as a rock."

Cloud simply rolled his eyes even though Tifa couldn't see the gesture.

"Kinda hard to believe," Cloud muttered, "I mean Yuffie? With Vincent?"

"Stranger things have happened," Tifa observed, "like how two ancient beings fell from the heavens to our planet bearing the faces of our beloved friend and our worst enemy. Or the fact that they were madly in love with each other after all these centuries have passed since they were born?"

"Uh, yeah," Cloud said as he scratched his head.

"As I said, stranger things have happened," Tifa responded, "why else do you think that Yuffie is always hanging out with Vincent? It isn't just because that she likes to annoy him. She likes to annoy all of us, not just our resident Goth."

Cloud chuckled as he turned around in Tifa's embrace.

"And you seem to find delight in teasing me," Cloud spoke as drew Tifa closer to him, "looks like I'm not the only one with something in common with another of the members of AVALANCHE."

Their conversation went no further as in the next moment, Cloud bent down and captured Tifa's lips in a kiss that she eagerly returned.

* * *

**_I know who you are…you're his shadow…I won't let you win, I know what you are doing… I will get my memories back and I will escape from this grey void that you placed my in… I will not give up, not when so much is at stake…you can't beat me… I will get back what you have stolen… you can't keep me from him, he is my other half… I will get out... I will make you pay…its only a matter of time…

* * *

_**

A shrill ringing brought Tifa out of her sleep. As the noise continued, she reached over to the nightstand next to her and fumbled around for the PHS. In her fumblings, her hand knocked the PHS to the ground and Tifa sleepily cursed. The still half-asleep brunette didn't so much climb but rather rolled out of bed, hitting the shockingly cold metal floor with a small oomph. Now fully awake, Tifa scrambled over and snatched the PHS off the floor from where it was still ringing.

"Hello?" Tifa asked as she held the PHS close to her head.

She listened intently to what the person on the other end of the line was saying.

"What?!!" Tifa yelped.

Her yell woke up Cloud who had still been asleep during the previous altercation.

"Huh? Wha?" Cloud sleepily asked.

"Much as I know that both of us need our sleep, AVALANCHE is needed again," Tifa hurriedly explained as she closed the PHS, "there has been another Hellspawn sighting, this time outside of Neilhelm."

Cloud groaned at hearing the news. Tifa sympathized with him, both of them had been running on little sleep as of late and with the constant Hellspawn attacks, that had learned just yesterday were actually creatures that Jenova had been producing, they were also running on short fuses.

There was just so much a person could take before they totally lost it or simply collapsed from exhaustion. Barret had almost done the former after coming back from cleaning up the wreckage of Junion. Cid had done the later while piloting the Highwind and neither of the two men has woken up as far as Tifa knew.

About six hours after Cloud had ordered both Vincent and Yuffie to their respective beds, Nanaki and Cait Sith had gotten up to relieve Cloud and Tifa of their post. It had been decided that there would always be two members of AVALANCHE awake and ready to deploy at any given moment.

Tifa glanced at the alarm clock that was on the nightstand and groaned. They had only managed to get four hours of sleep before the phone call had interrupted them. Nanaki, Barret and Cait Sith must have already gotten called out to fend off Hellspawn attacks if Cloud and Tifa's rest period had been cut short by two hours.

By now Tifa had already finished changing her clothes, as evidenced by her pervious outfit lying crumpled on the floor next of the bed, and was on her way to the main deck to talk to whoever was piloting the Highwind. As she passed the eating area Tifa decided to have a last minute change of plans. Coffee first, then debriefing.

It took almost five minutes for the coffee, but the wait was worth it as Tifa carried the steaming mug with her up to the main deck where she saw Cloud was already talking to Cid.

"You're up too?" Tifa asked as she walked over to the conversing men.

"Can't keep me down for long," Cid boasted as he lit up a cigarette.

"No, but that filthy habit will if you keep it up," Shera's voiced drifted over as the mechanic came into the main deck.

Cid groaned as he reluctantly put out the cigarette.

"Hey Shera!" Tifa called, "when did you get on board?"

"About two hours ago when the captain made a refueling stop at Rocket Town," Shera replied, "it seemed like you guys were in need of an extra pilot."

"I don't need some f#ing back-up woman!" Cid barked.

"Yes captain," Shera replied, "I'm sure that you don't need a back-up pilot when you almost caused the Highwind to crash because you fell asleep at the wheel."

Cloud snickered. Cid shot him a withering glare.

"Well its nice to have you on board just in case," Tifa consoled, "I guess that Cloud and Vincent aren't the only ones who are too mulish for their own good."

Both men shot Tifa glares as Shera softly giggled.

"So where is Vincent and Yuffie?" Cloud asked, "I didn't see them in their rooms as I walked past."

"Yuffie got an urgent call from Wutai about two hours ago while I was refueling the Highwind at Rocket Town. Both the brat and the dammed vampire took off riding on the pair of golden chocobos that were stabled on board," Cid recounted.

Cloud frowned. If Yuffie and Vincent had left, that only left him and Tifa as the back-up fighters in case of another Hellspawn attack. And now they were being called out, leaving no one behind to fight but Cid since Shera wasn't a warrior, only a mechanic and co-pilot. This was not good, not good at all.

The chances of another Hellspawn attack while the rest of AVALANCHE was off fighting were not all that unlikely and this worried them all. What would happen if a Hellspawn attacked in while everyone was out fighting or waiting for a pick-up and no one was close to the attack sight?

_It would be a massacre_, Cloud grimly thought.

"So how far are we away from Neilhelm?" Cloud inquired.

"We should be there in about an hour," Cid answered as kept his attention of piloting the airship.

"Tifa, how far away was the Hellspawn reported to be?" Cloud asked.

"About fifty miles," Tifa instantly responded, the conversation on the PHS still fresh in her mind.

"That's too damn close," Cloud growled, "Cid can't you make the Highwind go any faster?"

"Spike if I push the engines any harder they are liable to explode," Cid barked, "so quit your bitching and let me do my job!"

"Oh gods!" Tifa yelled as she glanced out the left window, "everyone brace yourselves for impact. It looks like the Hellspawn decided that we were a more attractive target than Neilhelm was."

"&# &&$# &#!!!!!" Cid yelled as he wrenched the steering wheel around, causing the Highwind to make a sharp left.

"Hey Spike get-" Cid's words were cut off as he watched Cloud and Tifa dash out of the room.

"&#! Shera get your &ing ass over here and take over the wheel!" Cid yelled as he reached for his spear, "I'm going off to make sure those idiots don't get themselves killed."

Shera dived for the wildly spinning wheel as Cid raced after Tifa and Cloud.

"And make sure that you don't crash my baby!" Cid yelled back as he exited the room, "I'm counting on you!"

A warm feeling grew in Shera's heart at Cid's parting words, but she didn't have the time to think over it as she had to send the Highwind into a sharp dive to avoid another attack that the Hellspawn shot at the airship. This was to be the test of her life. If she could handle this, she could handle anything. Even a cranky, foul-mouthed, chain-smoking pilot that had stolen her heart so many years ago.

* * *

_Angel?... where are you?...please hurry, I can't hold on much longer… I know that you are working to break out of your prison… you can get out, I know it… the pain, it never stops…slowly eating away at my spirit and my sanity… I'm trapped here in this living nightmare…I love you… please hurry, before it's too late… I just want this all to end… to be safe in your arms once again… please save me from this hell …Angel can you hear me?... please… I need you… come soon… ah, the pain… it never stops… please come soon, I won't last much longer… hurry…hurry…hurry…I love you… please hurry…

* * *

_

"Can't you go any faster you dumb bird?!" Yuffie shrieked.

"Yuffie! Calm down!" Vincent yelled over the winds generated by the chobobos as they raced across the mountainous landscape, "yelling won't make us get there any faster. Save your energy for the fight with the Hellspawn."

"I know that! But dammit!" Yuffie shouted, "this isn't easy you know! This is the place where I grew up! I…I just can't help it! I feel like that I'm not doing enough. This is my home, I have to protect it! I just can't-"

"Yes you can," Vincent yelled back, "all of us have been giving it our all in beating back these Hellspawn. There is only so much a person can do. You're not a god Yuffie, none of us are."

"Sometimes I wish that I was," Yuffie bitterly shot.

"That kind of thinking is what caused the Sephiroth from our planet to use the Black Materia," Vincent coldly told her.

"I know that, but…" Yuffie trailed off, unable to continue.

The pair of golden chocobos continued racing up the mountainside carrying their riders in silence. Within a few moments they crested over the ridge and the chocobos raced down the slope on the other side of the mountain at three times their previous speed. Then after a few bone-jarring minutes they slowed down again as they hit the slope of the next mountain.

* * *

_Any minute now,_ Yuffie thought, _any minute now we will get over this last mountain and enter into the valley that Wutai is located in. Where the Hellspawn is. The Hellspawn that wants to destroy Wutai. The Hellspawn that Jenova sent._

"Damn that alien bitch!" Yuffie exploded, "why couldn't it just stay dead when we killed it back in the Northern Crater two years ago? Why can't it just leave us alone? Is peace too much to ask for?!!"

"No, no it isn't," Vincent quietly answered.

* * *

**_Almost there… I have forced the grey fog to relinquish almost all of the memories that it stole… soon, soon my love… soon I will break free and rejoin with you… the shadow can't stop me… I won't let him…

* * *

_**

"Almost there!" Yuffie muttered, her knuckles white from gripping the chocobo's reins so hard, "just a few more seconds and then we will be over the top of the last mountain. Then we can get to Wutai in less than fifteen minutes."

Vincent glanced over at the muttering Wutain princess but said nothing. It was not his place to comfort her. He failed Luceria, he didn't deserve to receive the love of another. He was unworthy, too stained by his sins. He had to keep his distance, it would be better for the both of them.

"Just a few more seconds…" Yuffie continued muttering.

* * *

_"THIS IS THE LAST STRAW!!!" Hojo roared._

_Sephiroth winced, the mad scientist's loud voice hurt his ears._

_"All I have gotten is inconclusive findings and sheer rubbish from these machines!" Hojo yelled._

_The deranged man whirled around and glared at Sephiroth._

_"This is all your fault! What have you been doing to make all my tests fail?!" Hojo accused the immobile silver-haired man, jabbing a finger at him, "if what the machines tell me are true, you are nothing but pure energy, which I know is scientifically impossible. You have to breath, eat and sleep just like every other living organism. You are made out of bone, blood and flesh. The x-rays I took proves that! Why can't I even get a simple blood reading from you?" _

_"Perhaps because you are an absolute fraud!" Sephiroth shot back._

_"Quite boy!" Hojo screeched as he slapped him._

_Sephiroth only chuckled at Hojo's impotent fury._

_"I should have gagged you long ago!" he snarled, "you are just like me, just like everyone else, except for those wings."_

_"I am nothing like you and never will be!" Sephiroth spat._

_A horrible idea came to Hojo._

_"Yes blood and bone, just like every other person, only with wings…" he mused, "if you won't give me the answers you are looking for, I will force you to!"

* * *

_

"No…" Yuffie gasped.

"No! No,no, no. NO!!!!" she screamed into the sky.

As if in a daze, Yuffie climbed off the chocobo's saddle and her knees. The sight before her was permanently etched into her mind and was branded into her eyes.

"NO!!!!!!!" she screamed once again before collapsing onto the ground sobbing.

"Too late, I was too late, I failed...I was too late," she muttered over and over again.

Vincent silently dismounted from his chocobo and rushed over to Yuffie who was curled into a ball at the base of her chocobo. Wordlessly he gathered her up in his arms and spread his cloak around her shuddering form, blocking the horrible image from her sight.

"Too late… I failed…too late" Yuffie sobbed.

Vincent awkwardly stoked her hair in an attempt to soothe her. Yuffie responded by wrapping her arms around his chest and cried into his shirt. Vincent looked on at the burning city as a wind whipped past them, rustling his cape and causing his hair to fly wildly about him. He could feel the ninja's loss keenly, he too knew what it was like to loose everything.

* * *

_Hojo was running around looking for something, angrly muttering. With a shout of triumph he found what he was looking for and stalked over to Sephiroth, held motionless to the table by his restraints. The deranged man hid what he was carrying behind his back, an insane gleam in his eyes._

_"I won't bother to gag you now," he cackled, "I want to hear your screams."_

_He raised the tool he had behind his back over his head and with a cry swung it down-

* * *

_

Yuffie was alone, adrift in this big empty world. Her home, family and childhood friends had been ripped from her in the space of a few hours. She had nothing left, nothing but her friends in AVALANCHE and even they would likely not be enough to pull the distraught and grieving young woman through this nightmare.

They had gotten there too late, the Hellspawn had already destroyed everything, leaving no survivors and no structures standing. The monster was no where in sight, apparently having moved on to another target. All they could do is look on as Wutai finished burning to the ground.

* * *

**_She was almost there. Finally she had retrieved all her memories, and now she was trying to break her way out of her grey prison. Only getting out of the fog was harder than she had thought. While it had mightily resisted her efforts to retrieve her stolen memories she had ultimately succeeded in that endeavor. The grey void was fighting tooth and nail now as she struggled to dispel the fog surrounding her. She could only hope that she had the strength to defeat this foe…

* * *

_**

As Yuffie's world fell around her, the beginnings of a fierce and passionate life-long relationship kindled between the orphaned Wutai princess and the silent red-cloaked gunman that held her.

Cloud, Tifa and Cid desperately fought off another Hellspawn halfway across the world, trying to prevent Neilhelm from being destroyed a second time while fighting for their lives as well. As they fought, the bonds of friendship grew steel-strong between the trio and the love Cloud and Tifa shared was tested time and time again as the Hellspawn tried its hardest to destroy everything around it.

Beads of sweat dotted Shera's forehead as she pulled off another tricky maneuver that just barely dodged a blast the Hellspawn that Cloud, Tifa and Cid were fighting on the ground. She had to keep the airship intact at all costs, if another Hellspawn were to attack, they would need the Highwind to get to the area before it destroyed even more peoples' lives.

Nanaki, Cait Sith and Barret stood two hundred feet away from the smoldering corpse of the Hellspawn that they had killed, watching the sky turn black with gathering clouds. Thunder rumbled off in the distance and a chill wind whipped by, fanning the tail flame of the sentient red beast. With a boom the remains of the Hellspawn imploded, leaving a crater in its place.

* * *

-_and swung the sledge hammer down on Sephiroth's right wing. Blood and feathers flew everywhere as pain like he had never experienced before ripped through his being._

_Sephiroth screamed._

_Hojo raised the hammer up for another blow and-

* * *

_

_**Aeris was quickly running out of energy. At this rate she would fail, the fog as if sensing her failing reserves drew closer to Aeris and started smothering her with its mind-numbing forces.**_

_**Then, pain like she never knew before ripped through her body. The soul bond between Aeris and her other half blazed as the pain traveled across it, transmitting Sephiroth's agony onto her. The pain brought clarity to her mind and with it, an unexpected strength. **_

**_She gathered the energy that she was receiving from the pain in a hotly glowing green-silver ball and threw it at the center of the grey fog surrounding her and with a howl the energy ripped through, leaving a gaping hole that Aeris intended to use…

* * *

_**

_-smashed the hammer down onto his other wing, crushing the joint halfway up his wing._

_Sephiroth's screams were getting louder and louder, echoing across the lab and could even be heard in the area above where the underground laboratory was hidden._

_Hojo raised the hammer once again-

* * *

_

_**Aeris let out a blood-curdling scream as another wave of pain lanced into her being. She was beyond rational thought now. The only thing that mattered was reaching her beloved… and making the person who was doing this to him pay…

* * *

**_

A bright silver streak burst out of a cave behind a waterfall that fed into a huge, circular lake. It appeared to be a brightly glowing person with wings flying high over the sky and was heading west.

Cloud paused mid-swing to gape at the bright star that flashed across the sky. The Hellspawn took advantage of the blonde's distraction to swing one of its pointed forelimbs at Cloud, aiming to impale the swordsman. Tifa let out an angry yell and leapt over, intent on intercepting the attack before it hit Cloud. Her fist was glowing brightly as she smashed it against the lance-like leg and with the force of a miniature nuclear explosion, blasted not only the limb, but the entire Hellspawn to oblivion.

* * *

**_Aeris rose higher and higher in the sky as the energy that was bringing around her left a silver trail behind her as she flew faster and faster. Her form began to fade out as she picked up speed and altitude and before long, her entire body had turned into pure energy to be able to travel faster as she flew through the sky._**

**_Aeris knew that she had only seconds to reach her other half as she approached the speed of light before something dreadful happened to him.

* * *

_**

Vincent cradled Yuffie close to his body as he slightly rocking her back and forth. Just minutes ago, she had fallen asleep, worn out by the emotional trauma of seeing Wutai burn down before her eyes. Their relationship had been changed by this event and Vincent knew that neither of them could go back. He couldn't keep on pretending that the normally happy and energetic young woman who he was holding meant nothing more to him other else than fighting partner, a close acquaintance.

He couldn't stifle the gasp that escaped his lips as a burning streak of silver shot over the ocean straight towards the ruins of Wutai. Apparently this woke Yuffie up as she sleepily asked what was going on, but Vincent was unable to reply for the next second the bright light crashed down right behind the Dao Cho cliff.

Wordlessly they nodded at each other before jumping up on their startled chocobos and raced across the valley towards the impact sight.

* * *

_**Six**_

**_The wind rushed past her as she picked up speed_**

_**Five**_

_**She was now flying over the ocean, her soul straining to go even faster**_

_**Four**_

**_A large island appeared over the horizon as her body started to reform_**

_**Three**_

**_The smoldering ruins of a city filled her sight as the ground got closer and closer_**

_**Two **_

**_She could feel her other half less than a hundred feet away from her, he was in so much pain. Fury filled her mind at the thought of someone desecrating her beloved in such a way_**

_**One

* * *

**_

-_and swung the hammer down a third time. The sledge hammer was about to crush his right wrist when-

* * *

_

**BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* * *

**

-_a terrible explosion rocked the entire lab. The force of the explosion swept the sledge hammer out of Hojo's hands and sent him sprawling to the ground. Machines tumbled to the ground as wires connecting them to the generator snapped in a shower of sparks.

* * *

_

Winds whipped around the underground laboratory and they weren't coming from the new hole in the roof either. In the middle of the wreckage, stood a woman, her brown whipping all around in the flurry of the violent, howling winds. Her wings kept on flaring in and out in agitation as she glared down at the figure huddling against a wall.

An unpleasant odor wafted across the room to the furious angel. She wrinkled her nose in disgust as she noticed the wet spot that suddenly stained the man's pants.

Strangely as the winds kept on whipping around the room, destroying more machinery and lab equipment, the bleeding figure lying on the table next to the woman remained untouched. Though all the leather straps had been shredded and the titanium shackles that had bound his hands and feet had been sliced clean through.

"You vile creature," the woman snarled, "how dare you inflict such torture on my other half?"

The scientist whimpered and tried to scoot away.

"For that you die!" she announced.

Hojo let out a shriek as the winds that were flying around the room suddenly disappeared. Her entire body was slightly glowing with barely contained silver energy, her entire frame shuddering with fury. Her eyes were blazing white, sparks of energy coming out from them as silver energy lines started whipping off of her body in all directions.

Slowly she drew the energy closer to her body, and concentrated them in a swirling, silver tinted mass right above the center of her chest. Her blazing silver eyes narrowed.

"Now die," she whispered as she let loose what had gathered.

Howling created by the razor edged winds she released filled the room, overpowering Hojo screams. It was over in a matter of seconds. The winds vanished as suddenly as they appeared. Nothing was left of Hojo but a puddle of blood in the spot that he had crouched on. A grim smile was etched across her face in bitter satisfaction. The deranged man was dead, but at the cost of her remaining innocence.

Aeris had killed a sentient, thinking creature for the first time in her existence and even though the bastard deserved it a thousand times over, the act left a bitter aftertaste in her mind.

"You came, I knew you would," Sephiroth whispered, "my angel came and saved me from this nightmare. Now I can finally sleep."

"Sephiroth!" Aeris cried as she rushed over to him as he finally passed out.

A strangled sob escaped her throat as she saw the damage that Hojo had inflicted on him. Cuts and bruises covered his body, and one of his eyes were swollen shut and turning black. But by far the worst damage had been done to his lovely wings. The madman had taken a sledge hammer to them and smashed the bones of his wings to a bloody pulp in two places. She doubted that he would ever be able to fly again.

Aeris' tears dripped down onto Sephiroth's chest as she grieved for him. This was all her fault. If only she had not gotten captured by Sephiroth's shadow, none of this would have ever happened. Fury suddenly filled her.

_This was all his fault!_ Aeris realized, _it were not for that bastard of Jenova, none of this would have ever happened. He will pay! Both of the will pay, him and that alien bitch he calls Mother!_

"Hey Vince, over here!" Yuffie's voice yelled out.

Aeris heard some faint scrambling as the ninja climbed up to the hole she had created in the roof of the underground lab.

"Geeze, will ya look at that, that is some hole," Yuffie whistled, "hurry up you slowpoke. I would like to get there sometime this century."

"Your comments never cease to amuse me," Vincent muttered as he tried top grasp a hand hole above him and to his right with his golden claw, "not all of us are able to scale a cliff as easily as you can."

Yuffie just blew a raspberry at him and continued upward. A moment later, she finally reached the edge of the hole in the mountain. She stuck her head inside the opening and spent the next few moments allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness of the chamber that the hole revealed. Her eyes widened when she was finally able to make out what was inside.

"Oh gawd," she muttered.

"Hey Vinny, get your but up here pronto," Yuffie yelled down, "I found them!"

* * *

No cliffy this time. But one helluva build up and climax instead of the well tried and true cliffhanger that you readers to dread. Funny thing, I actually wrote the first half of this chappie when I was in flying from my home to my cousin's house. On the airplane, at the airport waiting between flights, weird ne? Hard to imagine writing fan fiction while on an airplane a mile up in the atmosphere.

I'm on Spring Break right now and so I intend to try and finish this fic up during my time off from school. I got an internship in the east coast during the summer, working on a beach keeping tourists from stepping on the plover nests and I have the feeling that I won't have much time to get online or write fan fiction. I don't want to leave my readers with a three month gap between updates. That is just not very responsible. So I intend to finish this story before the semester ends.

Shouldn't be too hard since there won't be more two or three more chappies till this fic is done. As always, a big thanks to my beta for all her hard work, this story would be of lower quality without her.

Please leave a review before you go.


	8. Darkness growing

Pawns of Prophecy

By turtlerad17

Disclaimer: I don't own FF7.

* * *

Chapter 7- Darkness Gathering

Cloud was just picking himself up after being knocked down when Tifa used her Final Heaven limit break to totally demolish the Hellspawn when his PHS started furiously ringing. The bruised and battered blond swordsman groaned.

_Great, it's more bad news I bet,_ he sullenly thought, _probably yet another Hellspawn attack. Wonder where it is this time? At Bone Village, the Northern Crater, or even better yet, on the bottom of the ocean? _

"Hey Spike, answer your f&$ing PHS already you daft moron!" Cid yelled from the other side of the crater that used to be the Hellspawn.

"Can it tarmouth!" Cloud snarled, clearly fed up, "shouldn't you be checking for any battle damage on the airship anyways?"

"$ &$ $h!t!!!" Cid cursed as he turned around and took off towards the Highwind as Shera was landing it.

The loud ringing of Cloud's PHS continued.

"What?!" Cloud snarled into the PHS as he flipped it open.

"_Geeze Spike, don't burst a vein or something,"_ Yuffie's voice came over the PHS.

"What is it Yuffie? This had better be good, we just finished killing a really huge Hellspawn and I have little patience for nonsense," Cloud growled.

_"Don't get your petticoats in a bunch,"_ Yuffie admonished, _"you know that shooting star that you probably saw heading westward? Turns out that it landed in Wutai."_

"Yeah I saw it. So what about it?" Cloud ground out.

_"Well the thing blew a hole in the mountain behind the Dao Cho cliffs,"_ Yuffie responded, _"You'll never guess what we found there."_

"Yuffie…" Cloud growled.

_"Well the comet or whatever it was blew a hole, revealing a hidden laboratory or something,"_ Yuffie continued, _"gawd, you wouldn't believe the mess. But we found Aeris and Sephiroth in there."_

"You found them?" Cloud asked eagerly.

"_Yeah,"_ Yuffie answered, her tone suddenly depressed.

"What happened?" Cloud asked, worried.

There was only silence from the other end for a few seconds.

"_Cloud, it was awful, Sephiroth, he, I mean, he's hurt bad,"_ Yuffie burst out, "_I…I…First Wutai burning to the ground, and then this? I just can't take it any more! I-"_

Sounds of Yuffie's PHS clattering to the ground came over the line accompanied by Yuffie's wracking sobs. Cloud frowned, Wutai burning? What had happened over there? Cloud heard someone, most likely Vincent he thought, pick up the PHS.

_"Cloud?"_ Vincent's calm voice came over the connection, _"You and the others should get over here. I don't really have time to explain all that has happened right now. I have to look after Yuffie and help Aeris tend to Sephiroth's injuries. I'll tell you everything when you arrive."_

"Vincent what-" Cloud was cut off when Vincent hung up.

Cloud hit the redial button. He counted nine rings before he got Yuffie's voice mail. Cursing he snapped the PHS shut and shoved it into his pocket.

"Tifa, come on!" Cloud called as he stormed over to the Highwind, "we have to get going and pick up Nanaki, Cait Sith and Barret. Then we are going over to Wutai."

"Cloud what happened?" Tifa asked as she ran up beside him.

"Vincent and Yuffie found Aeris and Sephiroth," Cloud responded, "apparently Yuffie's having an emotional breakdown, something about Wutai burning."

"Oh no!" Tifa gasped.

"Sephiroth has been hurt badly as well," Cloud continued, "but Vincent refused to give me any details until all the rest of us arrived."

"Did you try calling him back?" Tifa asked.

"He turned off both his and Yuffie's PHS," Cloud grimly answered.

Tifa muttered something under her breath about stupid vampires and where she would like to shove his demands. Cloud could only grin.

_Looks like Tifa has been picking some things up from Cid and Barret,_ he thought slightly amused despite the tense situation.

If either of them had bothered looking behind them they might have noticed the sky growing darker in the area where the Hellspawn had been killed.

* * *

_"I know that!" a voice that he recognized as belonging to Aeris yelled angrily._

_"You know that with that extent of damage that he will never be able to use them again," a cool voice responded._

_"I don't care, but I won't let you do that!" Aeris snapped._

_"Aeris, it needs to be done if he is ever able to operate functionally again," the voice that he finally recognized as belonging to Vincent argued back._

_"He will be fine, you just don't understand why! Our wings are part of what we are. They stay and that's final!" Aeris shouted._

_"Stop letting your emotions get the best of you, it needs to be done!" Vincent almost shouted._

_"Shut up! I'm not about to let you amp-" Aeris started._

"What's going on?" Sephiroth groaned as he cracked his eyes open.

Immediately Aeris paused in mid rant and rushed over to Sephiroth.

"Sephiroth!" she cried, "oh gods, I'm so sorry that I didn't get here in time to prevent this from happening! That bastard Hojo smashed your-"

"I know what that crazed lunatic did to me," Sephiroth cut her off, "What I want to know is if he is dead yet."

"He won't be able to trouble anyone else again," Aeris grimly informed him, "I personally made sure of that. All that is left of that monster is a puddle of blood."

"Good," he declared, "Besides I'm more worried about you. You're not hurt are you?"

"No," Aeris softly replied shaking her head, "you shouldn't be worried about me. You are the one who is injured. Are the pain killers we gave you working?"

"A bit," Sephiroth affirmed, "but I don't think that there is any pain killer that can make the agony in my wings go away. All that I can do is wait for them to heal."

"That could take months," Vincent cut in, "and we don't have that long to wait for you to heal. The Hellspawn attacks keep on increasing and we need you on your feet as soon as possible to help fight off the monsters. The best thing to do would be to-"

"Absolutely not!!!" Aeris exploded, "there is no way in hell that I'm going to allow anyone to amputate his wings!"

"So that was what the argument I woke up to was?" Sephiroth mused.

"You're taking this remarkably well," Vincent observed.

"Its simple, Aeris is right," Sephiroth matter-of-factly informed the stunned gunman, "as soon as the wounds on my wings close, I will absorb them back into my body."

"Told ya so," Aeris smugly stated.

"How is even such a thing possible?" Vincent asked bewildered.

"These bodies that we are using are just a physical manifestation of our energy and essence," Sephiroth explained, "we are not currently existing in out natural state."

"You are normally balls of energy as Yuffie so eloquently put it?" Vincent asked.

"Bingo," Aeris grinned, "we really aren't much more than a self-sustaining bundle of energy that has a soul and thinking mind. It would not be that hard to reabsorb parts of our bodies. We would just feel a bit heavier than we normally do. All that extra mass has to go somewhere."

"So why haven't you turned back into balls of energy?" Yuffie piped up. She had woken up after crying herself to sleep a second time just a few minutes ago and had been silently listening to their conversation.

"That would be your planet's doing," Sephiroth grumbled, "it was the one that dragged us down to its surface and forced us to take on physical bodies in the first place. It is what is keeping us in this state and bound to its surface."

"Bummer," Yuffie commented, somewhat subdued.

"Hey vampire! Where are you guys?" Cid's voice rang out.

Vincent sighed while Yuffie snorted and Aeris shot the pair an amused look.

_Seems like something is going on between those two,_ Aeris told Sephiroth.

_Indeed, but I don't know why that should concern me,_ Sephiroth replied.

_You haven't changed,_ Aeris though back, amusement flowing across their bond, _by our planet, I have been unable to talk with you like this for too long. It's good to be able to do so again._

_Just how did you manage to get away from my counterpart anyway?_ Sephiroth asked.

_Your pain pierced through the grey fog that I was imprisoned in allowing me break out and arrive by your side in just a few seconds,_ Aeris morosely sent.

_You dissolved your body to be able to go faster when you did that didn't you?_ Sephiroth asked.

_Nothing escapes you my other half,_ Aeris giggled, _I'm just relieved that-_

"Care to tell us what you two are talking about to each other?" Yuffie quipped, "not all of us have physic abilities like you two featherheads do."

"Yo brat! I know that you are here somewhere! Give us a sign that you are alive already!" Barret bellowed.

"Shove a sock in it you old boar!" Yuffie yelled.

"Why you dammed brat!" Barret exploded.

"Barret, settle down! I really don't need a brawl on my hands right now!" Cloud barked, "just ignore Yuffie's taunts."

"Hey lovebirds, could ya tell us where you are already?" Cid yelled.

Aeris giggled while Sephiroth snorted. Yuffie blushed and Vincent fidgeted slightly.

"I knew it!" Aeris crowed, "there is something going on between the two of you isn't there?"

"Oh shut up," Yuffie grumbled, her blush getting brighter, "my personal relationships are none of your business."

Aeris chortled.

"I don't have to take this from you," the young ninja announced as she got up and clamored out of the hole in the east facing wall, "Hey Spike, Tar-mouth, Gimpy, Teef, Furball and Caity, we're up here!"

Two sets of voices cursing along with some chuckling answered Yuffie's call.

"We can see that Yuffie," Tifa yelled, laughing as the ninja energetically waved back.

Yuffie's waving abruptly stopped as she laid her gaze on the ruins of her hometown. Her smile wilted and tears started streaming down her face. A second later she vanished back into the ruined lab that Aeris had blown a hole into.

"What was that all about?" Cait Sith wondered.

"She just lost her home town, her remaining family and all her childhood friends," Nanaki responded, "it's a wonder that she was able to greet us with such vigor. I would have expected her to be quietly grieving in a corner myself."

"Poor Yuffie," Tifa murmured, "at least she has Vincent to support her."

"Did I just hear you correctly?" Cait Sith asked, "Vincent supporting Yuffie? Rather odd if you ask me."

"Well no one asked you dammed robotic nuisance," Barret muttered, "gods, how much higher up do I have to climb to get there? I don't know how the pest can climb this cliff like it was nothing."

"Perhaps because she weighs almost three times as less as you do," Cait Sith joked.

Barret growled but otherwise didn't respond.

"I'm up!" Tifa called as she swung into the huge hole in the mountain side, Cloud right on her heels.

"Oh sweet planet," Tifa whispered as she took in the scene in the ruined lab below her.

Yuffie was crying into Vincent's shirt as he murmured soothing words into her ear and rubbed her back lightly. Aeris was crouched in front of Sephiroth, re-checking him over for injuries that she might have missed. For the most part he appeared to be intact until Tifa's gaze fell onto his wings. In two places a heavy object had been smashed onto his main wing joints and they drooped on the rubble strewn floor. The silver haired man winced in apparent pain every time he made even the smallest movement.

Tifa couldn't help but feel the tragedy of Sephiroth's situation. Aeris was crouching near her love, grief etched on her face. They looked like a pair of angels with broken wings, only Aeris' wounds were not visible but were of the mind and spirit.

Cloud joined Tifa at her perch a moment later. He too took in Sephiroth's injures and winced in sympathy.

"Why are the two of you so f&#ing silent?" Cid asked a few feet below them.

Tifa looked back in surprise and almost fell backwards and would have tumbled down the mountainside if Cloud didn't reach out and steady her. Nanaki who was just a few feet away from and above Cid leapt up and landed right beside Cloud.

"It looks painful," he remarked.

Cloud and Tifa only nodded.

"Shove over you three!" Cid said as he finally reached the lip of the hole.

This time it was Cloud's turn to be caught off guard and unfortunately for him neither Tifa nor Nanaki was able to catch him as he tumbled down into the ruined laboratory, landing on his stomach just a foot away from a highly amused Sephiroth.

"Oh shut up," Cloud groaned as Tifa and Nanaki dropped down beside him.

Cid's laughter rang out from above as Tifa hurried over to help the blond up. A moment later the pilot jumped down and joined the others. The sound of clumsy scrambling and dislodged rocks tumbling down the mountainside announced the arrival of Cait Sith and instead of stopping at the edge of the hill, the robotic cat continued charging full steam and literally ran over the edge of the hole and fell face-first into the lab with a heavy thud.

Aeris had watched the arrival of the rest of AVALANCHE with a wide, blank stare and was only able to shake herself out of her daze when she heard Barret's fluent cursing as he struggled to finish climbing up the mountainside. The golden brunette took one look at the scene in front of her and burst out laughing. Cloud shot her a glare while Cait Sith merrily waved at her.

Then Barret made his grand entrance, getting his left foot caught in an uneven part of the hole and landed hard on his butt. Aeris only laughed even harder.

"Who knew that the saviors of the planet were such goofballs?" Aeris managed to gasp between bouts of laughter.

Barret scowled and climbed to his feet using his gun-arm for support.

"So now what?" Cait Sith piped up when all the confusion died down.

"Since it looks like Sephiroth's wounds have been bandaged as well as they could be given Vincent and Yuffie's limited supply of medical supplies," Cloud pondered, "the only thing that I can think that still needs to be done is getting Mr. Featherweight over there down off this mountain and back into the Highwind."

It was Sephiroth's turn to scowl at the use of the nickname that Cloud had called him.

"That's not going to be easy," Tifa commented, "we will have to be extra careful with his wings for one thing."

"Would you stop talking about me as if I'm an invalid?" Sephiroth asked annoyed, "I'm perfectly capable of getting down to the airship myself."

"Hardly!" Cid barked, "just look at you. You don't look like you could take three steps on your own unaided."

_He's right love,_ Aeris told her fuming soul mate.

_I know that, but that doesn't mean that I have to like the fact,_ Sephiroth grumbled.

"So how are we going to get Silvertop over there out of the hole?" Barret asked.

Cloud sighed as the bickering and name calling continued between the various members of AVALANCHE and Aeris and Sephiroth.

_This ought to be interesting at the least,_ he thought.

* * *

Interesting was one way to put the experience at getting the grouchy silver haired man down the mountain and back onto the airship. They had decided to try and airlift him after getting Sephiroth out of the ruined lab, a process that had taken almost an hour. The moment they hauled him out of the hole, Cid took off down the mountain at a dead run towards the Highwind.

It took over two hours for Cid to return to the Highwind, get it started up and fly it over to the others. Once there Shera lowered a large metal basket/cage that was attached to a giant hook that was at the end of a cable attached to a metal winch on the outer deck of the airship. Along with the cargo basket that was lowered down slowly, Shera threw down the rope ladder so that the others could climb up as well.

Cloud was the last one to get on board as Aeris had elected to ride up in the basket with Sephiroth rather than fly up to the others. During the slow and rather agonizing ride up (at least on Sephiroth's behalf) Aeris channeled as much of the pain away from Sephiroth that she could. By the time both of them were finally able to climb out of the cargo basket, Sephiroth was not the only one shaking with exhaustion.

Aeris, in a show of surprising strength, supported/dragged Sephiroth into the medical room all by herself and immediately changed the crude, blood-soaked bandages on Sephiroth's wings after gently washing the crushed areas with warm water. The others had gathered in the conference room and were discussing what they should do next. No one was able to contribute much and it seemed that every two minutes someone yawned.

"That it, everyone is just too plain exhausted to get anything done tonight," Cloud announced as he stood up, "go get something to eat and then turn in early. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

No one bothered to disobey those orders and within the hour everyone was putting up a line of z's.

* * *

"_I'm so glad that the both of you are safe" a soft feminine voice spoke, her words drifting across the swirling and intertwining silver and green energies._

_"Who are you?" Sephiroth demanded._

_Silver laugher echoed around the pair of confused lovers._

_"This is a dream isn't it?" Aeris asked._

_"Very perceptible of you," the unknown female laughed lightly._

_"I know that I've heard that voice before!" Aeris muttered. _

_"You should, since it is the same as yours," the female chuckled._

_"What?!" Aeris chocked out._

_"Come out already!" Sephiroth barked._

_"So untrusting," the voice murmured, "makes me wonder how she was able to win your trust let alone your love in the first place."_

_"Watch your words female, this is our dream that you have invaded, you have no power in this place," Sephiroth growled._

_"You are so like him," the voice sadly murmured, "if it hadn't been for her you would have turned out just like he did."_

_"Stop speaking in riddles!" Sephiroth snapped. _

_"So suspicious, so untrusting, so hostile, always to attack at the slightest perceived threat," the female continued, "you still have so much to learn Child of the Stars."_

_"What did you just call me?" Sephiroth asked._

_"Child of the Stars," the voice repeated, "both of you are Children of the Stars, free spirits that wander the sea of stars in a never ending journey of destiny and personal growth."_

_"Just like that old Cetran prophecy that we found in Cosmo Canyon," Aeris recalled._

_"Just so," the voice agreed._

_"What is your purpose in coming here?" Sephiroth demanded._

_"To warn you that the black one and the ancient enemy are moving," the voice informed Sephiroth and Aeris, "you need to prepare yourselves for they shall attempt to use the both of you to their own ends. Build up the bond between the two of you and use it to let nothing be able to manipulate or control you. The darkness spreads, be ready."_

_Aeris who had been listening intently to the voice as she delivered her warning suddenly realized just who the presence was._

_"You are the Aeris of this planet aren't you?" she asked._

_"Finally figured it out did you," the other Aeris replied as she materialized in front of them._

_Sephiroth started at the other brunette. Aeris gasped, but not because she the other woman was her mirror image. It was her aura that had caught Aeris' attention, it was a lovely, very familiar shade of pink. One she herself used to possess when she was still on her home world._

_"It was you who was trying to contact me while I still was in the grey void!" Aeris realized._

_The other woman laughed._

_"Why?" Aeris asked._

_"The planet has a vested interest in keeping you out of the hands of the enemy," the other woman explained, "all that I have done I have done to keep my planet alive."_

_"So that's it?" Sephiroth asked incredulously, "all we are are pawns on the chest board for your planet to move as it wills. I will not be some pawn to play a role in your ancestor's crack-pot prophecy!"_

_"Sephiroth!" Aeris admonished._

_"No Aeris, we have been played as fools for too long, I will have no more of it!" he roared, "ever since we got here, we have experienced nothing but misery. Do you know how useless I felt after you had kidnapped? It's something that I never want to experience again."_

"_Sephiroth-" Aeris began._

"_No hear me out," Sephiroth interrupted her, "you are my reason for existing, without I would have reason to go on. You are my world, my universe, my everything. I am nothing without you."_

_Aeris threw herself into his arms, weeping. _

_"I love you so much, more than anything, more than any sun, planet, or moon. I love you even more than the stars that we have become associated with," Aeris softly declared._

_"I love you with all my heart and soul," Sephiroth murmured, "nothing can truly separate the two of us, even death failed at that."_

_"So loving, so protective, so passionate, so possessive," the other woman intoned, "now I see that you are truly different from the black one. Continue to watch over and protect each other. He really matches you my more evolved counterpart."_

_"More evolved?" Aeris echoed._

"_I envy the both of you, you have a freedom that hardly any ever achieve," the other woman murmured as she started to fade from sight, "traveling side-by side through the endless sea of stars must be wonderful…" _

"_Wait, what do you mean by more evolved?" Aeris called, "please tell me!"_

"_It is for you figure out on your own," the other Aeris' voice echoed across the dreamscape, "if I tell you now, I will alter the course of destiny. Be strong, the darkness spreads…"_

"_Wait!" Aeris called out.

* * *

_

"Wait!" Aeris yelled as she woke up.

"I'm not going anywhere soon love," Sephiroth chuckled as he wound an arm around her waist.

"You're feeling better I see," Aeris wryly observed.

"I should be healed enough in two or three more days to be able to reabsorb my wings," Sephiroth told her as he started rubbing her neck.

"Mmmmm, that feels good," Aeris purred, "strange dream I had just now."

"So it wasn't just me in there," Sephiroth teased.

Aeris poked him in the stomach. Sephiroth only grinned.

"Remind me to beat some politeness into you," Aeris murmured as she buried her face in Sephiroth's hair, "you were totally rude to my counterpart last night."

"I can think of one way that you can teach me," Sephiroth purred.

"You are in no shape for those kinds of activities," Aeris admonished, "just because these bodies are temporary, we still have to live by the normal rules of life while we are on this planet. Any unhealed damage that we receive now will be transmitted into our ethereal state later when we finally are able to leave."

Sephiroth grumbled.

"Hey are you two awake?" Tifa asked as she knocked on the door.

"Yeah we're both up," Aeris called back, "I'll be out in about ten minutes."

"Okay, the others are converging in the dinning area in a few minutes anyway," Tifa replied, "I'll make sure that the black holes don't scarf down all the food and save some for you guys."

Aeris got up and to try and change her clothes (always an interesting experience with wings) when Sephiroth dragged her back down to the bed.

"Seph!" she complained, "let me up!"

"Mmmm, why should I? You were going to leave me behind while you got breakfast weren't you?" he murmured.

"You know that you shouldn't be getting out of bed anyway, and neither of us will get any food if you prevent me from leaving," Aeris huffed.

Sephiroth only drew her closer and tightened his arms around her.

"Can you please let me up already?" Aeris asked annoyed.

"Since you asked so nicely, no," Sephiroth rumbled.

"Sephiroth," Aeris growled.

"I love it when you do that," Sephiroth commented.

"Do I have to dump cold water on you?" Aeris threatened.

Sephiroth wrinkled his nose. Wet feathers were not the most pleasant of things to smell.

"Fine," he grumbled, reluctantly unwinding his arms from around her.

"I'll make sure to bring you back some bacon, an omelet and some French toast," Aeris told him as she struggled to get dressed.

"I never noticed how flexible you are," Sephiroth idly noted as he watched Aeris contort into a really interesting position to pull on her wrap-around top.

Aeris ignored him and in less than a minute was walking off towards the dining area. On her way there, Aeris idly glanced out a window to her right. What she saw stopped her in her tracks.

"Oh no," she moaned.

Aeris hurried off to join the others in the dinning area. Cloud and Barret were on breakfast duty and except for the occasional muttered curse from Barret, they cooked in silence. The former Cetra picked up a tray and two plates and got at the end of the food line. Once the others had filled up their plates Aeris finally got her turn. True to her word, Tifa had prevented those with the more voracious appetites from snagging all the food and there was more than enough to satisfy both her and Sephiroth.

"Take a look of the window guys," Aeris told them, "looks like the next battle will be sooner than we thought."

In synchrony, all eight heads turned to look out the only window in the dinning area. This time Barret and Cid weren't the only ones to curse loudly.

"Blast it all to hell! Does it ever stop?" Barret groaned.

"So what does this mean?" Tifa asked.

"The black one and the ancient enemy are preparing for their final strike," Aeris grimly answered.

"Our resident megalomaniac and Jenova," Yuffie clarified.

"Why does he keep on coming back?" Cloud groaned, "haven't I killed him twice already? How many lives does he have anyway?"

"_The planet will be cast into darkness and when all hope is lost, fire and wind will be unleashed, heralding the final battle,_" Tifa recalled.

"The darkness is already spreading," Vincent observed as he watched the sky continue to darken in several patches along the horizon.

"Yes, but it is the outcome of the final battle that worries me," Cloud said.

"Fire and wind will be unleashed," Tifa murmured, "wonder what that means?"

"I have a hunch," Nanaki commented, "but I will keep my suspicions to myself until I'm positive about what I suspect."

"Very logical," Yuffie sagely nodded, although she spoiled the effect by reaching over and smearing a blob of whipped cream across Vincent's face.

Vincent surprised everyone by dipping a finger into the jelly jar and leaving a blob of the quivering fruit preserve on the tip of Yuffie's nose, his face blank the whole time. Yuffie retaliated by flicking a bit of egg into Vincent's hair and he in turn poured a bit of maple syrup onto her shirt.

Aeris had to stifle her giggles at the pair's antics as they studiously continued to decorate the other with parts of their breakfast while the others looked on in amazement. Well everyone but Tifa that is, she had known that something had been going on between the two ever since they found them at Wutai.

Aeris decided that while the others were distracted that she should make good her escape. She quietly ducked out of the room without a single person noticing and quickly trotted back to her bedroom that she was currently sharing with Sephiroth.

Back in their room, Aeris had handed Sephiroth his plate and he promptly had started his own food fight with Aeris, only wearing a cheeky grin on his face as he had smeared a bit of cream onto her face. They had to take a shower not long afterwards to prevent the maple syrup from drying on both of them.

After they had had their shower, Aeris had vanished off somewhere for a few hours, discussing plans with the others he supposed, while he had been ordered to strict bed-rest. He had been slightly miffed about it, but Aeris had kept up a steady stream of commentary through their link about what the others were planning. At least he wasn't entirely out of the loop.

The others had been astonished to learn just how fast Sephiroth had been recovering and Aeris had her suspicions, but she kept them to herself. His other half was right to be suspicious, as he had been forcing his wings to heal at twice the normal sped that they should have. All the food he had been eating was being put towards his healing and consequently he actually had little energy to spare for other things like walking or even moving for that matter.

It had been a real strain for him to mess around with Aeris earlier when they woke up and later when they had their fun with breakfast. But Sephiroth had been careful not to show Aeris any of his fatigue.

Aeris slamming the door behind her as she rushed in shook Sephiroth out of his thoughts.

"What's going on?" Sephiroth asked in confusion.

"Cloud just received a call telling him that someone saw a huge group of the Hellspawn gathering around the Northern Crater," Aeris distractedly replied as she shoved supplies into sack, "looks like Jenova and your shadow are gathering a venerable army to move on Icicle Village."

"Here," Aeris called as she tossed the sack at Sephiroth, "tie this to your belt or something, you'll need it in battle."

"What's in here?" Sephiroth asked as he hefted the bag, determining how heavy it was.

"X-potions, two elixirs, some phoenix downs, a few status effect cures and high ethers," Aeris listed off as she shoved the same supplies into another bag, "we're going to head off to the Northern Crater right after Cloud, Tifa and Barret return with the rest of the supplies."

"How long will it take to get there?" Sephiroth inquired.

"Eight to ten hours," Aeris replied as rummaged through the room's closet.

"What are you-" Sephiroth began but was cut off by Aeris cry of "Ah-hah!".

"I thought that it was in here!" she announced as she dragged the object, or rather the sword, out of the closet, "I don't know how you can lift this thing Sephiroth!"

"Stay put, I'll be right back!" Aeris cut Sephiroth's reply off as she dashed out of the room once more.

"Yes sir," he mock saluted to the closed door.

A few minutes later she returned groaning under the weight of the tray of food she was carrying. Aeris dumped the leftovers from breakfast on the nightstand next to Sephiroth and went over to close the door.

"I expect you to eat all of that," she calmly announced.

"Where on earth will I put all that food?" Sephiroth incredulously asked, "its not like I have a hollow leg or something."

"But you do have a pair of wings that you need to finish healing ASAP," Aeris commented, "don't think that I didn't notice you forcing the healing along earlier. Might as well get it over with, you will need to retract them into your body when we reach the Northern Crater anyway."

Sephiroth sighed and looked out the window at the encroaching darkness.

_This is going to be a long day,_ he thought as he started to fork some of the scrambled eggs into his mouth, _and it is sure to be an even longer battle.

* * *

_

The second chappie written in three days. I expect to write another one on Wednesday, and hopefully I can finish this fic before Spring Break ends. No cliffy this time though, I'm sure that you are all relieved. Only one more chapter and an epilogue to go.

Please leave a review on your way out!


	9. Fire and Wind Unleashed

Pawns of Prophecy

By turtlerad17

Disclaimer: I don't own FF7.

* * *

Chapter 9- Fire and Wind Unleashed

Cloud, Barret and Tifa took less than an hour to get the supplies that they needed for the upcoming battle, the sense that time was running out adding speed to their footsteps. The moment the trio got back onto the airship, the Highwind took off straight for Icicle Village.

After they had gotten back, Cloud and Tifa had disappeared back into their shared quarters to spend some quality time with each other. Yuffie and Tifa used to share the same room, but after Cloud and Tifa had announced their engagement, Tifa moved into Cloud's quarters, forcing Vincent (who rarely even used the room in the first place) to find somewhere else to sleep. Seeing how Vincent and Yuffie had been acting around each other after they found Aeris and Sephiroth, Tifa had a pretty good idea where the ex-TURK was now sleeping.

Cid would have stayed glued to the wheel the entire time, but Shera kicked him off, telling to get some sleep after three hours of piloting the airship. Cid's yelling (with the obligatory cursing) filled the Highwind as he stormed off to the dining area when it briefly paused and then resumed as the irate pilot stomped off to the room he shared with Barret to get some sleep. Both of the two men snored quite loudly and no one wanted to share a room with them. So they always got stuck sharing the same room whenever AVALANCHE got together.

Sure enough, about half an hour after Cid retired to his and Barret's shared room, a double set of snores could be heard twenty feet away in both directions from behind the closed door.

Nanaki and Cait Sith were on the flight deck keeping first Cid, and then Shera company after she kicked the obviously tired pilot off the wheel. As time went by they grew ever closer to the army of Hellspawn that was gathering on the Northern Continent. Two hours after Shera took over the wheel, Nanaki curled up in a corner on the flight deck and slept for the rest of the way.

As for the two Children of the Stars, after Aeris watched Sephiroth eat the enormous amount of food that she had brought for him to eat, the two settled down on the mattress, and promptly fell into a deep, dreamless and healing sleep. The events of the past few weeks had been hard on them both, and they both deserved their rest.

And so with the exception of Shera and Cait Sith, everyone on board the Highwind spent most of ten hour flight to the Northern Crater fast asleep, letting their bodies as well as their minds get some much needed recovery for what was most likely going to be the final battle for the fate of the planet.

* * *

_"Hurry, you do not have much time to prepare. Wake up!"_

The voice of this planet's Aeris sharply spoke into their minds, bringing Sephiroth and Aeris sitting bolt upright, wide awake. They stared at each other for a few seconds, the presence of the other Aeris vanishing from the room immediately after she finished speaking to them.

Recovering her wits quickly Aeris spoke, "are you recovered enough to retract your wings? It has to be done before the airship lands since they will only hinder you with their current state."

Sephiroth nodded curtly before closing his eyes and going absolutely still. A minute passed followed by another and another. Just as Aeris was started to get worried, Sephiroth's drooping, crookedly healed wings, for lack of a better description, _melted_ down and back into his back.

If anyone else but Aeris had seen the process, they would have shuddered in revulsion. The sight of Sephiroth's wings turning from blood, bone and feathers into something resembling yellow-pink hot wax and then being absorbed into the skin of his upper back would have turned the stomachs of battle-hardened soldiers.

Aeris however didn't even bat en eye as she watched the entire process from start to finish. She didn't find the sight disturbing in the slightest, having witnessed first hand things stranger and more mind boggling than this during their travels through the stars.

_Ready?_ Aeris asked Sephiroth.

_As ready as I can be with being so poorly-equipped, _was Sephiroth's reply.

Someone knocked at their door.

"Come in!" Aeris called.

The door opened to reveal Cait Sith. The robotic cat took a cursory look around and nodded to itself.

"Good to know that you guys are up and active," Cait Sith stated, "I was sent out by Shera to wake everyone up. Tifa, Cloud, and Nanaki are in the dinning area. I still have to roust Vince, the brat, and the two champion snorers down the hall."

Cait Sith grimaced and then continued to ramble on, "I am not looking forward to waking up the snoring beauties, my sensors can pick them up even from here. Both of them are really grouchy when someone wakes them up and Barret has a really good aim with alarm clocks, as I have found out."

_I can see why the pilot and the bull-headed black man are grumpy when they get woken up by that thing,_ Sephiroth groused, _**I**__ want to throw something at it right now to shut it up._

Aeris softly giggled at Sephiroth's commentary.

"and then when it comes to the brat-Huh? Did I miss something?" Cait Sith paused mid-ramble when it heard Aeris giggle.

Cait Sith took a moment to look at the scene in front of it. Aeris was softly giggling, curled up next to a wing-less Sephiroth was glaring daggers at the cat.

"Hey wait a minute! Wingless? When did that happen?" Cait Sith exclaimed.

Sephiroth's right hand was creeping towards a plastic plate that still had crumbs on it from their last meal on the nightstand next to the bed. The robot apparently noticed as it started to back up quickly.

"Erm. Um yeah. I'll get going now, still have to wake up the others," Cait Sith said as it continued to slowly back up, Sephiroth's hand closing around the plastic plate.

"We'll be landing in about half an hour so you should-" the robot continued, "Yipes!"

Sephiroth had flung the plastic plate at the annoying robotic cat as it hastily ducked out of the room, just barely missing being nailed by the impromptu projectile which Sephiroth had thrown at it. The plate hit the wall and fell to the tiled floor with a thunk.

Aeris at this point was now giggling quite profusely, the hilarity of their wake-up call relieving some of the tension that had been in her shoulders.

_Good riddance to bad rubbish,_ Sephiroth stated.

Aeris couldn't help it, she broke out into hysteric laughter. Sephiroth tried to scowl at her antics, but couldn't stop the small smile that spread on his face. Her laughter was a balm to his still raw mind, taking away some of the pain that still lingered on after his experience at the hands of the mad scientist.

"We should go join the others in the dinning area," Sephiroth finally suggested as Aeris' giggles died down.

"Uh-huh," Aeris distractedly answered.

"What's wrong?" Sephiroth asked, "worried about the upcoming battle?"

"A bit," Aeris answered.

"Only a bit?" Sephiroth retorted, "there is more on your mind than the final battle."

"Sometimes I swear that you can read my mind," Aeris teased as she lightly poked him in the ribs.

"I'm not physic remember?" Sephiroth replied, pretending to be serious.

"Oh if you are not physic, then what are you?" Aeris lightly mocked.

"A very patient man who has put up with your antics for millennia," Sephiroth growled back, "and a very skilled lover as well."

"Sephiroth!" Aeris exclaimed as he lunged for her, "now is not the time for a romp under the covers."

"True," Sephiroth admitted as he planted butterfly kisses on her face, "but you didn't deny my claim either."

"Why deny the obvious?" Aeris retorted with a small smile.

"Indeed," Sephiroth murmured as he ran his fingers through Aeris' hair, "but you have yet to tell me what is weighting so heavily on your mind beloved."

Aeris sighed, "I just can't help but think about that comment the other Aeris made in our dream two nights ago."

"Which one, she said much during that visit," Sephiroth pointed out.

"The one about me being her more evolved counterpart. I wonder what she meant by that?" Aeris puzzled.

"I have a feeling that we will figure it out in due time," Sephiroth assured her.

Simultaneously both of their stomachs rumbled rather loudly.

"Enough talk," Sephiroth announced, "We're both famished and there is some of Tifa's wonderful stew calling my name in the dinning area."

"Shall we go?" Aeris mock-seriously asked.

"We shall," he affirmed as they both exited the room.

* * *

Aeris, Sephiroth and all the members of AVALANCHE stood on the outside deck of the Highwind as they grew steadily closer and closer to the huge seething mass of Hellspawn that was heading straight to the now evacuated Icicle Village. Shera's announcement that they would be landing in ten minutes sent everyone rushing out of the dinning area and onto the outside deck.

At the first glimpse of the seething mass, Yuffie had let out a low whistle while Tifa groaned and Cid let loose a stream of obscenities. Cloud's eyes hardened at the sight of the upcoming battle and he drew an unresisting Tifa closer to him as if to protect her from danger. Vincent was calmly taking the whole scene in, hiding his fear behind an emotionless mask.

While all of AVALANCHE had their eyes glued to the army of Hellspawn, Sephiroth was gazing at the dark clouds overhead that covered the sky for as far as the eye could see. He had no idea what was awaiting them, but he knew that his fight was with his counterpart. His so called "shadow" had a lot to account for and Sephiroth had a colossal bone to pick with him.

The last part sentence of the prophecy that had fallen out of the book of poetry that Vincent had been reading at breakfast all those weeks ago came back to Sephiroth.

_The planet will be cast into darkness and when all hope is lost, fire and wind will be unleashed, heralding the final battle._

As if following his very thoughts, Aeris spoke up, "the planet is cast into darkness and the final battle is at hand, but what role does fire and wind play in this?"

"If I could answer that, then we would have never gotten into this mess in the first place beloved," Sephiroth quietly answered her.

"I love you," Aeris whispered to Sephiroth as the Highwind started descending.

"And I you," Sephiroth replied, "forever no matter what."

"Forever," Aeris agreed.

The pair stood for a moment in silence as the airship stopped about thirty feet above the snow covered field. Aeris could feel Sephiroth's muscles tense in anticipation of the battle as she leaned against his chest. The feelings that echoed across their bond reflected his physical state, tense and alert.

The rope ladder was thrown over the railing. The others started to climb down it quickly.

"You're going after him aren't you?" Aeris quietly asked already knowing the answer.

"Yes," he replied, "I'll never let you be taken from me again."

"Just be careful," Aeris advised, "remember the warning that this planet's Aeris gave us. We need to be on guard against another attack like the one that was used to control me. Both of us are vulnerable to this planet's form of magic, the Black One and the Crisis from the Skies would exploit that weakness to further their own goals."

"I know," Sephiroth spoke, trailing a finger along the curve of her lips, "the same goes for you."

And with that, Sephiroth jumped over the rail and landed on the snow thirty feet below. He gave her one last glance and then Sephiroth was off like a shot, heading into the middle of the army of Hellspawn, his sword in one hand, green energy snapping out from the other.

Aeris sighed, glanced up at the dark clouds overhead and launched herself off from the outer deck of the Highwind with a few powerful beats of her wings. Sephiroth and AVALANCHE had their own battles to fight. Her enemy lay in wait miles away from where she was right now.

_Everyone has their own roles to play in the last scene of this play,_ Aeris thought, _the only difference is that my role will take me far away from where the others will fight. _

Overhead as the members of AVALANCHE crashed into the front ranks of the Hellspawn, the huge airship to circled over them as they fought, piloted by Shera, close enough to get there if an airlift was needed, but far enough away to stay out of the enemy's range.

* * *

Sephiroth cut his way through the army of Hellspawn, using his sword and his emerald flare magic indiscriminately to fell anything that stood in his path as he searched for his shadow.

"Come out and face me you coward! I know you are here!" Sephiroth roared as he ruthlessly cut off the head of another Hellspawn.

"Tsk, tsk. You have quite a temper my weaker minded counterpart," the other silver haired man's voice mocked from overhead.

Sephiroth looked up and saw the black winged one in the air above him looking down upon him with a mocking sneer on his face.

"I'll show you weak," Sephiroth growled as he launched himself in the air to attack the Black One.

The other Sephiroth easily flew to the side, avoiding Sephiroth's attack.

"Your time traveling between the stars has made you loose your edge, my other self," the shadow scornfully spoke and then laughed.

While he was laughing, he didn't notice the satisfied look that flashed into Sephiroth's eyes. A second later, pain seared through his wing as the emerald ball of energy hit him, setting his feathers on fire and making him crash into the ground.

"Bravo," the shadow praised as he stood up from where he had fallen, "that was an underhanded move worthy of me. Looks like you aren't as rusty as I had thought."

"Only leveling the playing field," Sephiroth retorted as he pointed his sword at the mirror image.

"So it comes down to this," the other mused.

He then, to Sephiroth's astonishment, ripped the now useless appendage off his back. A few burnt, black feathers fluttered to the blood-soaked snow as blue blood flowed down the Black One's back.

Sephiroth grimanced as the emerald energy flared up around his hands once more.

"Not that I'm complaining," the Black One continued as a smirk stretched across his face once again, "it has been ages since I have been in a decent swordfight. Think that you can provide me with one?"

"Easily," Sephiroth sneered.

"That's good, I would hate to be disappointed once again," the shadow replied as he pulled out the Masamune that was forged on this planet, "the puppet was sorely lacking in that division."

"Shut up and fight!" Sephiroth yelled.

"It would be my pleasure," the dark twin answered as their swords collided.

The clang of sword hitting sword rang out across the battle field.

* * *

It seemed like every five minutes someone was releasing another limit break. Those that were beating back the horde of the Hellspawn were racking up damage so fast that their most powerful limit breaks were being built up at lightning speed. Spells were being lobbed through the air at an even faster rate and for every offensive spell cast, one or two healing or defense spells were used as well.

When spell casting became too draining or too ineffective someone summoned Knights of the Round or one of the other most powerful summons to give the spell casters a minute to rest and replenish their magic reserves while the summon wrecked havoc in the mass of Hellspawn for a minute or two.

Yuffie was becoming a popular person to hang around since Clear Tranquil was the only limit break that she was using. With all the injuries that everyone was receiving from the Hellspawn, the Wutain princess opted to heal others so they could continue fighting instead of knocking out a few Hellspawn with her more powerful limit breaks.

The irony of this was that in battle Yuffie tended to fight alone most of the time, her taunts towards her enemies being more annoying to her teammates than aggravating towards her opponents. Not to mention that those around her had the tendency to suffer injuries from "friendly fire" due to the huge bladed weapons that the Wutain heiress fought with.

An hour into the fight, Vincent collapsed to the ground, but before anyone had even taken five steps towards the fallen ex-Turk, a loud roar was heard and Chaos flew up into the air. The demon starting casuing similar damage to the ranks of Hellspawn that one of the summons could do. Fifteen minutes later Chaos landed and gunshots coming from the Death Penalty replaced Chaos' roars.

The next time Vincent was on the verge of passing out, Chaos resurfaced once more and the cycle continued like that for the rest of the battle. After the second time Chaos came out, no one paid Vincent/Chaos much attention other else than to avoid a stray attack from the demon.

Tifa and Cloud were fighting back to back, taking turns on who was casting the spells and who was pummeling the Hellspawn with physical attacks and limit breaks. The two made a good tag team and worked so well together that they never needed aid from the other members of AVALANCHE right up until the end of the battle.

Nanaki and Cid were fighting solo, their agility and speed on their feet making them good roaming combatants, never staying in one place for long. They were always on the move, directing an attack from hitting one of the others, taking out a Hellspawn themselves, heading over to Yuffie for her healing limit break, summoning Neo Bahmut or Knights or the Round when the others needed a break, ect.

Barret due to being more of a tank than a fighter jet got stuck with Cait Sith much to his dismay. The robotic cat could hold it's own but it was more of a distraction and an annoyance to the black gun-arm fighter than it was a reliable partner. Barret spent almost as much time yelling and swearing at the Moogle riding feline as he did fighting the Hellspawn. Due to this, Barret and Cait Sith were the ones that needed help from Nanaki or Cid most of the time.

At first they seemed to be making little progress since for every Hellspawn they felled, two, three or even four seemed to take the original one's spot. But as the members of AVALANCHE gradually were depleting their supplies and getting worn out by the seemingly nonstop barrage of monsters, some of them noticed that fewer and fewer Hellspawn stepped up to take the places of their fallen comrades.

The outcome of this battle now rested on what would happen first: the supply of Hellspawn running out or AVALANCHE running out of supplies and collapsing from exhaustion. It was all a matter of time now, soon one or the other was going to happen. Whether AVALANCHE or the Hellspawn won was still unclear, but one thing was for certain the battle would be over soon enough.

* * *

Aeris' wings were aching and going numb at the tips from the frigid air by the time the North Crater finally came into sight. The last forty minutes of flight to reach and then descend down into the bottom of the ancient, massive crater were pure agony, but when Aeris finally landed at the lowest part of the Crater, she hardly had a minute to rest before her nemesis made her/itself known.

-So the little Cetra finally comes,- Jenova's voice spoke into Aeris' mind, -I don't know what your purpose was in coming here, but I can assure you that the only way you will be leaving is either as a corpse or puppet to dance to my and my son's whims once more.-

"Little Cetra?" Aeris skeptically repeated, "it has been eons since I have been called something like that."

-I know,- Jenova replied, -my sister who you and her traitor of a son murdered while 'saving your planet by sacrificing yourselves'-, Jenova spoke the words with disgust, -called you that, all that time ago right before your Evolution.-

_Evolution?_ Aeris thought to herself, _is this limb of Jenova speaking about what happened to me and Sephiroth after we fed our life force into summoning Holy?_

-I would say that you don't know what I am talking about judging by the look on your face,- Jenova smugly observed, -so this planet's dead little martyr failed to tell you about that did she? Perhaps I should enlighten you by showing you the Evolution of Jenova that took place a million years before your ancestors were even experimenting with fire.-

The shock was clearly written on Aeris' face. Jenova chuckled and before she could even prepare herself, the alien assaulted her mind with its own and Aeris was swept away by the ancient memory.

* * *

_Kela'var could hardly hold her excitement. Today was the day that the Eternal City had been working towards for the past thousand cycles. After almost ten generations of following the careful breeding program, the most powerful physic that the planet Enthunia had ever seen was finally ready for the Final Ceremony of Parting. The ceremony would allow the entire race of Cjenas, known as the children of grace, to transcend reality and travel through the different realms of existence._

_That had been the goal of the Council of the Eternity ever since the first physic had parted the veil between the realms and had glimpsed the paradise that lay beyond. After Le'shana had discovered that there was more levels of existence than the one that their race had lived in since their creation, the Council had been formed with the goal of finding the most powerful physics on the planet and breed them, their children, their grandchildren, and all their descendants into the bloodline of Le'shana, the First Seeker of Destiny._

_In the past, once a Seeker had reached maturity, they performed the Ceremony of Parting that weakened the veil of reality around the Eternal City, an act that drained all of their physic power and left them burnt out afterwards. Though after performing the Ceremony of Parting a Seeker was no longer able to use their physic abilities, their children would be able to, so they were soon mated with the candidate that the Council had decided upon to produce an eligible child to inherit the title of Seeker of Destiny. _

_Nine Seekers of Destiny later, the final, most powerful Seeker of Destiny had been born and summarily raised with the sole purpose of one day transcending reality and leading her people into the paradises beyond. The child of Hel'rean, the Ninth Seeker of Destiny, and Jac'aqume, the last descendant from the powerful physic Ye'lar, had brought the final bloodline into the bloodline of the Seekers of Destiny that was required to make the Eternal Seeker of Destiny. _

_For forty cycles Kela'var had been preparing to perform the Final Ceremony of Parting. Today was her fortieth anniversary of her birth, the day that she would completely separate the veil of reality and lead her people to their destiny. She had been born to this and never was she prouder to be the Eternal Seeker of Destiny than she was today. _

_Kela'var felt a brief touch brush against her mind. She sent a return touch to the one standing outside her chambers, giving the person outside permission to enter. _

_Wordlessly her caretaker, Trev'laka, who had been serving the line of the Seekers of Destiny since her birth one hundred and eight cycles ago entered the room. Trev'laka had been sworn into the service at the hour of its birth because it was a genderless being and due to that, could act as a bridge between the normally unmeshable male and female physic energies. Only one out of twenty children born were genderless, and since they were so uncommon, the role that they played in a race of physic beings made them very valued in Cjenian culture. _

_-It is time child, you are ready?- the genderless being spoke the last part in the form of an order though it was phrased as a question._

_"This is the moment I have been looking forward to my whole life, woe betide me if I was late to my Day of Destiny," Kela'var replied._

_A frown crossed Trev'laka's face, -why on this day do you use such an archaic form of communication?-_

_"Because after I perform the Final Ceremony of Parting, this will be the only I will be able to express my thoughts to others," Kela'var answered, "I figure that I might as well get used to speaking out loud now so I don't stumble over my words when I am no longer able to speak mind-to-mind."_

_-Are you having reservations about the ceremony?- her caretaker asked._

_-No- was Kela'var's reply, -why should I? The pervious Seekers of Destiny have always been honored above all others even after they performed the Ceremony of Parting, for it was a great price that they had to pay to bring out people ever closer to Paradise.-_

_The incredulous look still was on Trev'laks's face._

_-The wisdom that they gathered in that brief flash of vision into the place beyond the Veil was always greatly sought after even when they are at death's door,- Kela'var continued, -a Seeker could spend ten lifetimes describing what they saw beyond the Veil and still not be able to tell all that they had seen in that brief glimpse. I have no reservations about my destiny nor what awaits me after that.- _

_The frown finally vanished as Trev'laka's face smoothed and relaxed._

_-Well enough of this talk Eternal One, destiny waits for no one,- Trev'laka spoke as it strode out the door._

Yes, my destiny is finally about to be completed_, Kela'var thought to herself, _after the ceremony, I will finally be free to be myself. It will be a relief not to hear the voices of an entire race murmuring in the back of my mind all the time. I shall burn out my physic nodes in a blaze of glory for the betterment of my people and shall receive the greatest of rewards afterwards, the eternal reverence and respect of my people and the ability to not hear it in my thoughts as well. I will be in Paradise along with the rest of my people, what better reward could I ask for?

* * *

Elsewhere Sephiroth stopped mid-move right in the middle of his duel with this planet's Spawn of Jenova. The Crisis from the Sky's mental assault on Aeris flooded through their spiritual bond and crashed into his mind sweeping his consciousness away. Bonelessly, Sephiroth toppled to the churned and blood soaked ground while his dark twin smirked in triumph.

"There is no need to share the Children of the Stars with our benefactor who resurrected us now since he is dead by the female's hands," the Black One spoke to himself as he reached into his coat for the object that would bring instant victory to him, "the little female has felt the touch of this and now it is your turn my otherself. One way or another you will serve the purpose that you were born for. As soon as you wake up, both you and your female will be under our control."

"Forever," he whispered as he pulled out the glowing orb and gazed at the unconscious Sephiroth through the dark swirling energies within the sphere.

* * *

_Kela'var was never sure exactly when everything had gone wrong. She had been standing in her ceremonial robes as the Final Seeker of Destiny at the top of the Sky Tower, linking her mind to the minds of every Cjena on the planet. She was wielding the might of an entire race's collective physic energy to permanently part the Veil between the worlds. The feeling of being linked to the entire planet was both exhilarating and terrifying. _

_As soon as she had linked with the last Cjena, just moments after the ceremony had started, Kela'var took the collective physic energy and using her own powerful mind shaped it into a giant, glowing blade in the sky. Sweat poured down her spine as she used her mind like a huge invisible hand to grasp the blade and moved it in a swift slicing motion that cut right through the Veil. _

_The giant blade in the sky vanished the next second and Kela'var collapsed to the ground, her body shaking as the physic power wracked through her mind, leaving fire in its wake. All her mental shields were down as she vainly tried to de-link from all the minds she was connected to, leaving her vulnerable to an outside attack. _

* * *

A moment after she had been thrown into the memory of Kela'var, Sephiroth had appeared next to her, Jenova dragging him into the memory through their link.

Aeris and Sephiroth from far overhead observed the black cloud that was Jenova was before it invaded this universe roll out from the other side of the Veil and attack the unsuspecting citizens of the Eternal City with mingled horror, helplessness and disgust.

"There is nothing we can do to stop this destruction that has already happened," Aeris observed with fury in her eyes, "but we can do something to stop a similar fate from befalling this world just like we did on ours."

"I think that Jenova means to use this time while we are trapped in this memory to try and ensnare both of us under her web of control once more," Sephiroth commented.

"We can't and won't let that happen," Aeris vowed, "remember what my otherself told us. We must do it."

"Dare we try?" Sephiroth asked, "for all we know we may never be able to return to our separate selves if we fully merge."

"I don't think that we have a choice," Aeris answered.

"I know," Sephiroth sighed, "I still have my reservations, but if we do this and are unable to return we will still be together forever."

"Time grows short, if we are to merge, it must be before this memory finishes playing out," Aeris told him, "no matter what happens I will always love you."

"And I you," Sephiroth replied.

* * *

_Within minutes, the empty shells of every child of grace across the entire planet was stiffening with rigor mortis, their bodies expiring as the horrible black force sucked each mind out of it's physical body. An entire race whose advanced culture had stretched across the globe for a hundred thousand years had been wiped out in less than three minutes. The dying minds of every Cjena raced around in the blackness overhead that had come from another world, screaming with horror and despair. _

_When the last voice in the black mass went quiet, a single thought drifted across the huge consciousness that had tripled in size due to absorbing the minds of an entire race._

**I AM JENOVA**_, the being thought. _

_Then in the next moment, due to the instability of the huge mind that the being possessed, it split into two identical halves. Then the halves split again, and again and again. Soon there were countless smaller versions of the original being called Jenova. While each being was an individual creature all were still distantly linked with each other mind to mind. _

WE ARE JENOVA _they all collectively thought before, as one, as each bud of Jenova departed from the lifeless planet and dispersed to the far reaches of the universe they now were in. _

* * *

As the minds of an entire race were assimilated into the consciousness from another dimension in an ancient memory, Aeris and Sephiroth high overhead held each others' hands, closed their eyes and started glowing with a hot white-blue light.

While the monstrous mind identified and named itself, AVALANCHE, practically dead on their feet were fighting off the last, and the largest Hellspawn, their movements fueled by desperation and the drive to survive this battle.

When the original, unstable Jenova began to split into smaller parts Aeris and Sephiroth's forms slowly dissolved into motes of sparkling silver and emerald light. They had returned to the bodiless form of existence that they had before they landed on this planet. The motes of light drew together and condensed into one being as the memory finished and the limb of Jenova finally released its hold on them.

Brilliant sapphire blue eyes opened while hair dark as midnight that sparkled with stardust swirled around the androgynous figure stirred by an invisible wind. The grey void left in the absence of the ancient memory spiraled around the figure, the colorless grey darkening till the figure was surrounded by the total blackness found of deep outer space. One by one stars winked into existence around the figure that was neither male nor female, young nor old, but as beautiful and distant as the stars themselves.

Eventually the entire Milky Way stretched around the figure in all directions, its starry-night hair becoming one with the field of stars around it. Then the figure finally closed its brilliant sapphire eyes and the scene of the Milky Way faded around it. The hot white-blue glow that still surrounded the figure dimmed as it dissolved into the fading background. The combined being then returned to the unconscious bodies that housed the minds and souls of the ones that had merged create it.

When the small world of the mind that the figure had created around it ceased to exist, both Sephiroth's and Aeris' eyes snapped open simultaneously. But the eyes that looked out from their physical forms were not the emerald or sea-green orbs that one was used to seeing. Instead miles away twin sets of sapphire blue eyes surveyed the different scenes in front of each respective body and a decision was made by the Two-Made-One.

From where the being once known as Sephiroth stood, the Two-Made-One dispassionately watched as a fresh wave of Hellspawn roared across the frozen landscape heading towards the exhausted group of fighters that had named themselves guardians of the planet. The members of AVALANCHE looked up in despair to watch the oncoming horde of Hellspawn and knew that they would not even last a minute against this new wave of monsters in their current state.

Darkness now covered the entire planet and people everywhere had lost all hope for the continued survival of their planet. The enemy was just too strong and there were just too many of them for the guardians of the planet to be able to fight off.

Back in the Northern Crater where the dark clouds had originated from and were the thickest, the one formerly known as Aeris watched Jenova call Hellspawn after Hellspawn from the blackness at the bottom of the crater and ready the monsters to annihilate AVALANCHE and the rest of the humans of this planet.

-Watch in helpless despair my little puppet while I send my creations out to destroy this race of monkeys that call themselves humans,- Jenova cackled as she created bigger, more powerful and more hideous Hellspawn than had ever been seen, -and when the humans are dead and rotting in the ruins of their settlements, you and your life mate will deliver the final blow that will destroy this planet for good.-

"_You assume much, enemy from beyond the Veil. You and your Spawn think you can control us when in fact none of your manipulative powers can affect us in our current state,_" the merged being spoke with the same voice out of two different mouths.

-Your current state?- both Jenova and the other Sephiroth mocked, -the only change in your current state is that the both of you are completely delusional. There is not a creature in this universe that cannot be brought under the power of Jenova, a Child of the Stars is no exception.-

"_We are no longer the Children of the Stars. We are the Radiant One,_" the Two-Made-One replied, "_created by the complete merging of the ones known as Aeris and Sephiroth. We have been summoned to deal with the enemy from beyond the Veil and their Spawn._"

-I find it amusing that you keep on referring to my son as being my spawn when one of you was and still is a spawn of my sister- Jenova laughed.

"_We do not care about what you find amusing, we are incapable of emotions as we are_," the Radiant One spoke, "_all that we care about is fulfilling our purpose here and separating back into our separate components_."

"Foolish words from my foolish otherself," the Black One scoffed.

-We shall see how well you will be able to carry out your mission if you are dead!- Jenova snarled as she gathered up her energy to blast female half of the Radiant One.

"_The planet has fallen under a cloak of darkness and the people have lost all hope,_" the Radiant One chanted, "_with our separation back into Sephiroth and Aeris let wind and fire be unleashed!_"

Miles away from the Northern Crater and Jenova, the newest army of Hellspawn was almost upon AVALANCHE and the Black One was preparing to run the unresponsive male half of the Radiant One through the heart with his sword. The male half's eyes closed and a loud, high-pitched whine/buzz that was very familiar to AVALANCHE filled the air.

But this time instead of heralding an earthquake, the noise caused the Black One, Jenova and all the Hellspawn to collapse to the ground in terrible pain.

"What's going on?" Tifa yelled above the din.

"I have no &$ing idea!" Cid yelled back.

"Keep your eyes on Sephiroth!" Nanaki roared, "the last part of the prophecy seems to be unfolding!"

And sure enough it was. The air around Sephiroth shimmered with heat as his entire body was alight with emerald green energy.

Sephiroth's eyelids opened to reveal his normal sea-green orbs. With a lingering air of the Radiant One, he gazed at the Black One and in a totally Sephiroth-like move, curled his upper lip in disdain and snorted. He raised one brightly glowing hand into the air and smashed it downward into the ground. A huge arc of emerald energy shot up into the sky and crashed into the clouds, setting them a blaze with emerald fire.

"Firestorm!" Sephiroth yelled as he completed the move.

As the dark clouds continued to burn, huge chunks of green fire started to rain down upon the battlefield, hitting the Hellspawn and causing them to combust in an explosion of green fire. Within a minute the entire second wave of Hellspawn was annihilated and the fire in the dark clouds spread northward to obliterate the rest of the Hellspawn that kept on coming from the Northern Crater.

"Impressive fireworks," Sephiroth's mirror image acknowledged, "but it won't stop me or Mother at all."

"I don't need an entire shower of fire to finish you off," Sephiroth retorted, "a drop will do."

Sephiroth swung his sword up into the sky and caught a firedrop on the blade. The fire spread along the length of his Wutainese long sword and Sephiroth grinned like a madman as he charged at his dark twin.

For once his shadow was caught off guard and Sephiroth sunk his sword deeply into the shoulder of his opponent. The green fire that was burning on his weapon spread to the other Sephiroth and set him afire.

In a matter of moments, the Black One suffered the same fate that the Hellspawn had from Sephiroth's firestorm and was incinerated in an emerald blaze.

* * *

-Blast that noise!- Jenova shrieked, -stop standing around like that you idiots and kill her!"

Aeris simply held her hands palms facing out towards Jenova and the mass of Hellspawn that was charging towards her. A cutting, violently strong wind whipped past her as she spoke two words that unleashed chaos into the Northern Crater.

"Wind-tsunami!" Aeris yelled.

Like the name of the move implied a wave of razor edged wind blades rose up behind her and crashed into Jenova and the ranks of Hellspawn. The tidal wave of wind decimated the Hellspawn and caused serious damage to Jenova before moving up the crater and then out to destroy the stragglers that had been climbing out of the huge depression.

-You cannot beat me with such a paltry windstorm as that!- Jenova screamed as she lunged for Aeris.

"I don't need an entire windstorm to finish you off," Aeris smirked, "just a small microburst."

And then using the same move that Aeris used to kill Hojo, Aeris released her winds once more and by the time the debris in the air settled down, not even a puddle of blood was left.

"While a microburst is rather small-scale when compared to a windstorm, it can cause as much damage as a tornado can," Aeris spoke to the still air before turning around and launching into the air.

She didn't even spare one glance back towards where Jenova had been previously standing as she flew out of the Northern Crater.

* * *

Sephiroth's Firestorm kept on heading northward and Aeris' Wind-tsunami headed southward. The two forces met in the middle of the Gaia ice fields and in an explosion that reminded Cloud of when the Lifestream merged with Holy to combat Meteor, spread across the planet, leaving clear skies in its wake.

Suddenly feeling like his legs had turned to jelly, Cloud sank to the ground.

"I don't believe it, it's finally over," he murmured.

"The darkness has lifted and the final battle is over," Nanaki observed.

"Neither Jenova nor the One-Winged Angel shall trouble us anymore," Vincent added.

"Those two are something else," Yuffie said, awed as she watched the green and sliver energy disappear over the horizon.

There was no sign of Sephiroth up on the ledge where he had been standing when the sliver haired broken angel had fought his dark twin.

"I wonder if we will ever see them again?" Tifa asked.

"Who knows," Cid gruffly answered as he looked up at the star encrusted night sky, his thoughts going back to a two year old memory of when he briefly made it into outer space.

"Everyone is getting all teary-eyed," Cait Sith sniffed as it wiped the condensation from its visual sensors.

"Ah shove it ya dammed cat," Barret groused with no real feeling behind his words, "and the rest of you, shake out of it! Now is not the time to be introspective, we should be celebrating not crying like little children!"

"Barret's right!" Yuffie suddenly shouted, making everyone jump, "besides, we have a wedding to plan!"

"Can't forget the bachelor's party!" Cait Sith cheerfully added.

Tifa glared at the feline.

"Or maybe not…" it muttered as Barret and Cid pulled a decidedly reluctant Vincent into their scheming for Cloud's farewell-to-bachelorhood party.

Tifa looked up into the star strewn night sky and thought of about the two Children of the Stars that had fallen to their planet a month ago. She had no idea if they were still on the planet or had even survived the final battle. All that she knew was that the entire planet owed them their gratitude for saving them all.

_Good luck to the two of you,_ Tifa thought as she watched a shooting star burn briefly in the night sky before it disappeared,

* * *

Two months later…

"Ack where is the bride's bouquet!" Elmyra shrieked as the frantic last minute details were being ironed out in a whirlwind of activity, "the bridesmaid dresses turned out to be the wrong color, the deviled eggs have gone bad and the seating arrangement plan has been misplaced. Everything is going to hell in a handbasket! There is no way that we are going to be able to pull this wedding off in time!"

Tifa watched amused as Elmyra rushed around making sure that everything was in place for the big day. She knew that her wedding was in good hands when she asked Elmyra to be their wedding coordinator and despite the middle-aged woman's worries, the bride-to-be had a feeling that everything would turn out just fine. In the mean time, Tifa was watching Elmyra make a spectacle of herself, her pre-wedding jitters completely forgotten.

Though originally Tifa had wanted a small wedding with some close friends and family at Cosmo Canyon, somehow the media got wind of the affair and consequently it seemed like half of the planet's entire population had showed up for the wedding.

The crowd had gotten so bad, wanting to see the blushing bride-to-be and the handsome groom that they had to enlist the help of the Turks for crowd control. Somehow, despite their reputation, the Turks were doing a good job of it (Tifa privately suspected that the large wad of gil that Vincent had handed to Tseng when he thought no one had been looking had a big part to do with it).

From the roof of the huge complex that Tifa and Cloud were getting married at, a pair of familiar voices were engaged in a heated debate.

"I still can't believe that we're going to crash Tifa and Cloud's wedding!" Aeris complained.

"It was your idea after all," Sephiroth smoothly reminded her.

"No it wasn't!" Aeris protested, "all I wanted to do was congratulate the newlyweds during the reception, it was your harebrained idea that we should make this a double wedding!"

"Well I did promise you that after all this was over that we would get married didn't I?" Sephiroth innocently asked, "I figured this way we wouldn't have to go to the trouble of arranging a wedding of our own."

"Yeah, by intruding onto someone else's!" Aeris retorted.

"What better wedding to crash than the people who we worked with to save their planet?" Sephiroth shot back.

"Argh!" Aeris yelled, "you are incorrigible!"

"You mean irresistible," Sephiroth teased.

"More like irresponsible," Aeris muttered.

"You wound me with your cruel words beloved," Sephiroth mock-cried as Aeris none-too-gently shoved him, "you have inflicted a mortal wound on me! The only way to save my life is for you to marry me fair maid."

Aeris snorted as she shoved him again, knocking him off his feet. Grinning, Sephiroth got up and dusted himself off.

"Idiot," Aeris muttered.

Sephiroth only gave her a charming smile.

Right then the music changed, signaling that entrance of the bride.

"That's our cue," Sephiroth gleefully sang as he gathered a protesting Aeris up in his arms and leapt off the roof of the observatory to give the unsuspecting wedding goers that surprise of their life as they rapidly descended towards the center of the wedding procession.

"Sephiroth!" Aeris shrieked, "what the hell are you doing?! I'm going to kill you when this is all over!!!"

To be continued…

* * *

Well here it is, the second to last chapter in Pawns of Prophecy. I certainly put this off long enough. Sorry about that, but I did warn my readers that I wouldn't have much if any internet access at all during this summer.

I hoped you all enjoyed reading Pawns of Prophecy, the next chappie marks the last installment to the Prophecy series. Stay tuned and please leave a review before you go!


	10. Epilogue Wedding Crashers

Pawns of Prophecy

By turtlerad17

Disclaimer- I don't own FF7.

* * *

Epilogue- Wedding Crashers

Emerald fire and silver wind met somewhere over the Gaia icefields on the Northern Continent. The two elemental forces did not clash like one might have expected, but instead merged to form a glowing cloud of molten, pale-green energy. The cloud drew into itself, pulsed once, twice, then exploded outwards in a ring that flew across the frozen landscape. The thick, mist-like dark energy that covered the sky across the entire planet dissolved and dissipated into nothing as it came into contact with the expanding white-green energy ring.

The Children of the Stars were swept up into the mass of purifying energy, their physical bodies reverting to the free-energy state that was their natural forms. Rapture and ecstasy rippled across the soulbond shared by Aeris and Sephiroth, both reveling in the absolute freedom that they experienced in their natural state.

The music of the stars beckoned, but the song of the planet overpowered it by sheer proximity. Their astral senses were enhanced far beyond what they had ever experienced. The planet's song along with the roaring, pulsing beat of the combined energy from Sephiroth and Aeris created an intoxicating and feverish symphony that resonated and was absorbed into their souls.

Their life essences were intimately intertwined, not having separated completely into their individual personalities after the Radiant One reverted back into the Children of the Stars. Consequently the feelings experienced by one were felt exceptionally strongly by the other, the echoes enhancing the emotions that the original had felt. The last time they had been so deeply joined, but not to the point of becoming the Radiant One, had been back on their home world when they had fed all of their life energies, their souls even, into the desperate summoning of Holy to save their planet from Jenova and Meteor.

The fear and anxiety that had gripped the human population on this planet lifted as the skies cleared. The hauntingly familiar white-green energy that stretched across the sky reminded the people of a similar event two years prior when Holy and the Lifestream had joined to destroy Meteor. No one, except for the few individuals that kept in contact with AVALANCHE, had any idea at what had caused the darkness that enveloped the planet. But one thing that they did know, as the white-green energy faded away overhead, was that they had been saved by the defenders of the planet once again.

* * *

Back on the Highwind, the members of AVAVLANCHE, despite their earlier short impromptu celebration, were too physically and emotionally exhausted to do anything other else than seek their beds, their minds clouded with a grey haze of weariness. The implications of what Aeris and Sephiroth had done had yet to sink in, but when they did, a lot of answered questions came up in the minds of the planet's defenders.

A week went by as AVALANCHE recuperated from the battle on the Northern Continent. No sign of either of the Children of the Stars had been found, it was if they had vanished into thin air. The members of AVALANCHE eventually came to the conclusion that if they had survived, Sephiroth and Aeris had in all likelihood left the planet already as soon as the task that they had been brought here for was completed.

With the gloomy atmosphere that had hung over AVALANCHE now gone, everyone slowly started resuming their normal lives. After a week, Cloud and Tifa dived headfirst into planning their wedding, dragging Yuffie, and by extension Vincent, into the process as well. When Elymara finally got the news about the impending wedding, she came charging in and more or less took charge of the entire process, removing Yuffie and Vincent from the equation entirely (much to the ex-Turk's noticeable relief).

The weeks flew by and before they knew it, the big AVALANCHE wedding was only a week away. Barret, Cid and Cait Sith had sprung a surprise bachelor's party on Cloud the previous night, having been planning it behind his back ever since the end of the final battle. Vincent while present, had refused to have any part in planning for the party, having suffered enough from being involuntarily involved with planning the wedding.

The only reason why Vincent was at the party at all was because Cid had threatened to lock the gunman in a room with Tifa and Elymara when they were going over wedding catalogues. So while Vincent grudgingly attended Cloud's bachelor party, hanging out in one of the dark corners of Tifa's bar, he had fallen asleep by the time the "entertainment" had arrived.

Unfortunately the groom-to-be had passed out from the binge drinking the others had cajoled him into participating in, so he had missed the entertainment as well.

Cid and Barret were too busy drooling over the strippers that they had hired to notice that their companions were oblivious to the world, only discovering the fact after the girls had departed much richer than when they had arrived.

* * *

Meanwhile, Aeris and Sephiroth were celebrating their victory in their newly reformed physical bodies, causing quite a lot of noise in the empty cabin deep in the mountains surrounding Midgar that they were staying in.

One week ago, six weeks after the Radiant One had released its power against the Calamity from the Sky, the Children of the Stars woke up in the very same crater that AVALANCHE had found them not far from the Chocobo Farm. It had taken them that long to regain the energy that was depleted from releasing their most powerful attacks. Once they finally recovered enough strength, their life essences had resolidified into the bodies that the planet had forced them into.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Aeris and Sephiroth seized the opportunity to enjoy the pleasures that one could enjoy in a flesh and blood form. They had spent the whole week re-exploring each other. To their delight, they had found that their current forms were almost identical to the ones that they had been born in back on their home world. Of course, there was the notable exception of their wings (and boy did having wings open up many new possibilities when it came to making love).

When they finally got the news of the big celebrity wedding of Cloud and Tifa that was going to take place in Cosmo Canyon, Sephiroth and Aeris figured that the honeymoon was over and it was time to return to real life.

Aeris remembered the promised that she and Sephiroth had made the same night that Tifa and Cloud had announced their engagement. To get married was of the most precious dreams that she had had since she was a child. How overjoyed she had been when Sephiroth had made her that promise back in Cosmo Canyon.

What Aeris never suspected was that Sephiroth intended to fulfill that promise before they left this planet. Especially since he knew that she would never approve the manner in which he planned to do so. So totally unaware of what her lover was up to, Sephiroth and Aeris traveled from their retreat in the Midgar Mountains, crossed over the ocean to the Western Continent and then the continent itself to get to Cosmo canyon. Exhausted and with wind tossed hair, they arrived unnoticed at Cosmo Canyon the night before the big event and settled down on the roof of the Observatory for the night.

"I'm hearing the music of the stars more and more clearly," Aeris murmured, "it's becoming almost painful to remain on this planet."

"Our souls are wishing to return to our natural, free-energy state," Sephiroth replied, "this planet's hold on us weakens by the hour. It cannot keep exerting energy to keep us on its surface, especially as it is still recovering from the multiple attacks made by Shin-Ra and Jenova for the last few decades."

"I just hope that we get the chance to say good-bye to our friends before we have to leave," Aeris sighed.

"So that's what you're calling those creatures now?" Sephiroth playfully teased.

"Seph!" Aeris exclaimed, poking him in the ribs.

Sephiroth automatically jerked away from the offending digit but continued on with his train of thought.

"There is no need to fret angel," he purred, with a small, secretive smile, "I have a feeling that we will get the chance to do that and more."

"What are you up to now?" Aeris suspiciously demanded, a worrisome (to Sephiroth) gleam coming into her eyes.

"What makes you think that I'm up to something?" he innocently, too-innocently, asked.

Aeris snorted and sent a pulse of her irritation and disbelief across their soul bond to Sephiroth.

"I love you too angel," Sephiroth teased as he kissed the top of her head.

The passionate former Cetra was still in Sephiroth's arms. He just hoped that he could successfully distract her from pursuing the topic.

Lady Luck was not on the silver-haired man's side that night.

Just as Sephiroth was wondering if she had fallen asleep, Aeris turned around and gazed at him with huge, dewy, doe-like eyes. Sephiroth gulped, he knew that he was in trouble now.

"Sephy-bear," he cringed at the name, "are you sure that that there is nothing that I should know about, something about tomorrow?" now she was drawing circles on his chest with her finger, "Because I would absolutely hate it," her lower lip stuck out in an adorable pout, "if there was something that I would be unhappy with you about."

Aeris was sending Sephiroth on a major guilt trip and was quite aware that he knew that she was manipulating him. And dammed if that pout didn't get even cuter or those eyes of hers get even bigger, rounder and more expectant. Sephiroth sighed in defeat, he knew that she would only get worse until he finally caved.

"I swear that you are evil incarnate at times," Sephiroth grumbled, "where in the world did you learn to do that?"

"Do what?" Aeris sweetly asked, fluttering her eye lashes ever-so-slightly, "you're sure that there isn't anything that I should know about…"

Abruptly Aeris dropped the cute act as a determined look came over her face.

"…or do you want to sleep alone tonight?" she finished.

"You wouldn't," Sephiroth pleaded.

"Hmmm…maybe," Aeris responded, twirling a lock of hair around her fingers, "that is if you don't tell me about the little scheme that is bouncing around in your pretty little head."

"All that I was 'scheming' as you put it, was to get us married, no more, no less," Sephiroth pouted.

Aeris squealed and bounced up and down.

Then a thought flashed across her mind and she suddenly stilled.

"You better not be thinking about doing what I think you're thinking," Aeris threatened.

"So what do you think I'm thinking?" Sephiroth retorted.

Aeris groaned, exasperated at the stupid word game that she had inadvertently started.

"First, I think that if you continue being deliberately obtuse then Little Sephy will be very lonely tonight," Aeris ground out, " and second, if you think that I will go along with your little plan to crash Cloud and Tifa's wedding, then think again."

"We'll see," Sephiroth idly mused, "we'll see."

"Sephiroth!" Aeris screamed in frustration.

Sephiroth winced at her high-pitched voice.

"Have I ever told you that you're cute when you're angry?" he cheekily asked.

"Don't try changing the subject on me!" Aeris fumed.

"Too cute," Sephiroth teased.

"Goodnight Sephiroth," Aeris announced as she turned on her side, facing away from him.

He waited a few moments and pretty soon Aeris' breathing was calm and even.

"Goodnight angel," Sephiroth whispered as he pulled her dozing body to his, both of them automatically settling into a spooning position.

_Tomorrow is going to be an important day in more ways than one_, Sephiroth thought as he drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The next day dawned clear and bright, with just a hint of chill to the air. It was going to be a lovely autumn day, the heat of summer finally breaking two days ago finally giving in to the invigorating crispness of fall. Down below, the inhabitants of Cosmo Canyon were consumed with last-minute wedding details. They had less than two hours to get everything perfect before the bride made her big debut.

Aeris watched the frantic activities going on below with amusement. Whenever the wedding coordinator dashed across the across the courtyard, guests and hired help alike scattered, not wanting to get in the path of Hurricane Elymara.

A bittersweet feeling settled in her heart as Aeris watched the woman who was the carbon copy of her former teacher/mother figure. The Elymara from Aeris' planet was nothing more than a distant memory, the woman's spirit having returned to the Lifestream eons ago. Seeing this energetic woman with the same name and face as her old mentor filled Aeris with such longing and nostalgia for her home world and her old life back in Rose Valley that it almost hurt. The fact that she couldn't show herself to the woman below only made the feeling more poignant.

Sephiroth heard Aeris sigh.

"Why the long face angel? Today is supposed to be a day of joy and celebration," Sephiroth gently chided her.

"Seeing Elymara down there brings back old memories," Aeris sighed, "I miss my old teacher, I miss our home world. But I just can't go down there and barge into their lives. Those people down there, they have already put this planet's Aeris to rest. It would not be fair to get involved with them, it would only break their hearts again since we will have to leave so soon."

"I can assure you that I wouldn't be breaking any hearts down there, the inhabitants of this planet have little love for the monster that bore my face and name," Sephiroth pointed out.

Down below, quite unaware of the visitors perched on the roof of the Observatory, the Turks finally cleared the last of the reporters and gawkers out of Cosmo Canyon, taking up positions at the canyon's entrance to keep the curious horde of people from seeing the private wedding.

Totally oblivious to the heated argument going on overhead, the musicians started the music that announced the bride's arrival. Tifa stepped onto the red carpet and the crowd of family and friends that had been invited to the wedding held their breath.

She was absolutely lovely, her strapless sparkling white gown hugging her form, the v-neck of her dress dipping just low enough to get a teasing hint of the ample bosom under the silk. A dazzling diamond encrusted tiara was perched on the top of her head, the gauzy veil spilling off her head and over her long chocolate brown locks, stopping short of her ankles. The bride's face was uncovered and an uncharacteristically shy look was on her face. Her seemingly fragility did nothing to mask the confidence of her steps as she made her way down the aisle, finally coming to a stop next to Cloud at the end of the red carpet.

The blonde's mouth hung open in astonishment at the vision standing next to him, he could hardly believe that in just a few short moments he would be married to this dazzling woman.

The Priestess just started the ritual words that would bind Cloud and Tifa together as husband and wife when a scream split the air.

"Sephiroth!" Aeris shrieked, "what the hell are you doing?! I'm going to kill you when this is over!!!"

Then to the awe and mystification of the audience gathered, a pair of angels settled next to Cloud and Tifa in a flurry of silk and feathers. Everyone just stared in shock at the two last minute arrivals once the dust gathered. No one knew what to think about the summoner of Holy being held in the arms the madman that tried to destroy it, a ticked off expression on her face as she continued to berate him about pulling this hare-brained stunt. Of course what most of the members of the audience was unaware of that these two winged beings that were squabbling in front of them were not the Aeris and Sephiroth that they had come to know in the tale about AVALANCHE's epic battle for the planet.

No these two people were something else entirely.

Just as the audience was starting to get over their shock, a rather perky voice piped up, much to the exasperation of all who knew the voice's owner.

"Gawd! It certainly took the two of you long enough to get here. What were you waiting for, another apocalypse?" Yuffie yelled, "I mean, seriously, you two featherheads have the worst ability of keeping track of time. Not even Spike is as bad as the two of you are!"

Somehow, the young ninja's words managed to diffuse the growing tension. If one of the Saviors of the Planet was friendly towards the two unexpected guests, then they were most likely harmless (or maybe not, this is Yuffie that we're talking about after all). With a happy cry, Tifa ran over and embraced Aeris. The two women spent a few moments in a tearful, heartfelt reunion, before Tifa pulled back and got a good look at what her friends were wearing.

"Aeris, you look like you are dressed for a wedding," Tifa commented, taking in the brunette's creamy white, off-the-shoulder, Romanesque type gown.

The folds of the dress fell to the ground in shower of lightly embroidered fabric that loosely clung to her curves, perfectly embracing Aeris' slim, willowy body. The gown had a plunging backline that ended just above the small of her back to accommodate her large, white wings.

"More like dressed to be married," Sephiroth cryptically responded.

"Sephiroth," Cloud stated as he stepped up to the offworlder.

"Cloud," Sephiroth acknowledged.

"Glad that you made it," the blond gruffly admitted, clasping Sephiroth's arm in a warrior's welcome.

"What's with the get-up?" Cloud nonchalantly asked, eyeing the silver-haired man's flowing, midnight blue silk frock coat that went down to his knees.

Sephiroth's frock coat embroidered with Wutainese dragons in dark silver thread and under it Sephiroth wore a silk shirt the same color as Aeris' gown. Both the shirt and the coat had long slits in the back for his wings to go through. His shirt was tucked into midnight blue, silk pants that while loose and flowing left little to imagination they way they clung to his backside.

"I thought that I already answered that question," Sephiroth replied.

"Huh?" the bewildered blond asked.

"I think that it is sort of obvious sweetie," Tifa explained, "Sephiroth and Aeris want to get married before they have to leave, am I correct?"

Aeris shyly smiled while Sephiroth gave the wine eyed brunette one of his trademark smirks.

"First you interrupt the yearly AVALANCHE reunion, and now you are hijacking our wedding?" Cloud incredulously asked, "somehow you always know how to push things right up to the line without actually managing to cross it."

_Oh big words from the chocobo head_, Sephiroth relayed to Aeris.

_Be nice, this is his wedding day after all_, Aeris chided.

_You mean our wedding day as well angel_, Sephiroth corrected.

"I think that is about as close as you'll get to approval from Cloud," Tifa fondly interpreted her husband-to-be's unspoken words, "now if you two are done talking to each other mind-to-mind, I am quite impatient to finally marry my man. And I have a feeling that Aeris is thinking the same thing, so unless the priestess has any problems with a slight change in plans, I think that it is time to get this double wedding back into full swing."

Aeris shot Tifa and Cloud a brilliant smile and Sephiroth had the decency to look slightly sheepish about suddenly dropping into the wedding unannounced. The former Cetra tugged Sephiroth over so that she was standing next to Tifa with the silver haired warrior on her other side. Sephiroth rolled his eyes in exasperation but a fond smile curled at the edges of his lips. Cloud mouthed the word "whipped" to Sephiroth and the offworlder's smile turned into a full glare.

The blue robed priestess smiled in amusement at the mens' antics and started the wedding ceremony. She said the ritual blessing of happiness, love and fertility, reciting the words from memory as she drew symbols of health, harmony and love eternal on the foreheads of Aeris, Tifa, Cloud and Sephiroth using moist, rich black soil.

After each person recited their personal vows to their significant other, the priestess sprinkled a combination of dried holly, blue violets, and ivy over their bent heads. The combination of flowers and leaves representing faithfulness, friendship, good will, and foresight. The juice of juniper berries was dabbed on their lips for protection by the priestess as each person took out their wedding token to exchange with their lover, a promise to remain faithful and true. Finally, she announced that the two wedded couples were bound for life, completing the marriage ritual.

Then, before Sephiroth could seal the deal by claiming Aeris' lips with his own, the priestess handed both Children of the Stars a sliver acorn with a green cap each. A silent look of knowledge passed between the priestess and Aeris before the priestess withdrew. A bit put off by being interrupted, Sephiroth finally swooped down for the kill, hoping to make up for those lost seconds that Tifa and Cloud had taken advantage of to play tonsil hockey.

Almost three minutes passed before Cloud and Tifa abruptly broke apart, both gasping for air. Sephiroth and Aeris came up thirty seconds later, not to be outdone by the blond and his buxom new wife.

_So what is the deal with the acorn?_ Sephiroth asked his new wife.

_The acorn in Cetran culture is a symbol of life eternal,_ Aeris explained, _I was just as surprised to receive the gift as you were. I guess that the priestess is rather perceptive of mystical forces. She probably has a better idea of what a Child of the Stars actually is than we do. _

_This is all very interesting love, but it is time_, Sephiroth reminded her.

Aeris sighed, _as I very well know love._

"I'm going to miss you all," Aeris spoke up over the din of the wedding guest offering the newlyweds congratulations and well wishes.

The members of AVALANCHE turned as one to face the two Children of the Stars.

"You're going already?" Tifa asked, stepping forward with tears in her eyes.

Cloud reached over and gently pulled her back, shaking his head. Tifa got the blonde's message and leaned up against his body.

"We have no more time on this planet, we cannot hold our physical forms any longer, it is time for us to return to our journey through space," Sephiroth explained.

"Can't you stay at least until the bouquet and the garter are tossed?" Yuffie hopefully asked.

"Sorry," Aeris sadly replied as silver motes started surrounding her, "good luck everyone with your lives."

"Aeris wait!" Tifa called.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Cloud demanded looking at Sephiroth.

He only shook his head, his silver locks falling over his face as he embraced Aeris from behind, emerald mist staring to obscure his form. The rest of the wedding party watched in silence as the silver and emerald mists completely covered the two Children of the Stars before shrinking into themselves and shooting off into the sky in two blazing flares of light. It took the newlyweds and their wedding guests a few moments to realize that Aeris and Sephiroth were gone for good.

Yuffie promptly burst into tears and decided to use Vincent's coat as her hanky. The crimson eyed man really didn't seem to mind as he somewhat awkwardly placed an arm around her shaking shoulders (okay, he did mind, he just didn't show it). Cloud drew Tifa into a hug as both scanned the sky for any sign of their friends. A respectful silence fell amongst the members of AVALANCHE, they being the only people there that had any real clue who the two angelic beings who had just gotten married alongside Tifa and Cloud were.

Tears trailed down Tifa's face, but despite the sadness of having her friends leave, she was happy. Even if Aeris and Sephiroth's paths in life parted from theirs', everyone was finally getting their happy ending.

The End.

* * *

Gah! Yes, I know that it has been forever since I've updated. I can't help it, schoolwork is a demanding mistress as many of you know.

This marks the end of Pawns of Prophecy and closes the door on the Prophecy saga. I had fun and learned a lot as I wrote both CoP and PoP, and I will be a bit sad to finally be done with the series.

As for updating Musings of Emerald and Silver, it may be a week or more before I finally get a chance to finish Confrontation, the third and final part of the Dark City Trilogy. But I can tell you that it certainly will be worth the wait! I always get so excited when I write for the Dark City trilogy. It is a real adrenaline rush.

Reviews are the food of fan fic authors and without them we starve. Please feed me.


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